I Missed You
by It'sJustADream
Summary: Hatter follows Alice through the Looking Glass and finds that her world is stranger than he had first imagined. Just as they start to build their lives together something goes tragically wrong. What is to become of Wonderland now? A.N- If you own the image used for my cover and want credit or me to take it down, please message. x
1. Chapter 1

Chapter one

Hatter didn't know what to think anymore. A few days ago everything was simple, nothing made sense and yet he knew how everything worked, how things had to be. He worked both sides of the court so that he was never the victim, he could never lose. He liked to convince himself that he did it because it was the right thing to do, he could get food to the refugees and still be on the right side of the Queen by running his Tea Shop, but really, he knew it was because he was a coward.

Who wanted to be the vigilante anyway? The martyr that gets themselves killed for their cause. By double crossing everyone and making sure that he could look out for himself, he was safe.

He could play a role in the distribution of Wonderland's Tea problem, whilst keeping alive and aiding the very people fighting against it. All this time he had blamed the Queen and her Suits for the way that his home land had become, but now he could see clearly; thanks to Alice.

It had taken one Oyster, one fiery, beautiful yet ever so slightly crazy girl to make him realize that there were more people out there that mattered than just him. She had made him care about more than just payment or his own personal gain. Sure, he had felt sorry for the refugees and the resistance, but at the end of the day, if it came down to his life or theirs, he would gladly save himself without so much as a backwards glance at them.

All until a pretty girl in a very wet dress, that was, stepped into his office and spun his world upside down. A girl who's life he valued over his own, a girl, who he was quite confident in saying now, he loved, and a girl that he had let slip through his fingers and through the Looking Glass. Alice was gone for good.

He turned away from the Looking Glass as the last of the Oysters filed through it one by one until its reflective surface lay calm and still as if its use was no more than to look at and the magic it held was unnoticeable.

What was he going to do now? He could help rebuild his world, look out for Charlie, maybe even set up his Tea Shop again and sell actual tea this time. But all of it would be pointless without Alice.

"Something on your mind?" Jack asked, stepping in front of Hatter and adjusting his crisp new red suit. As much as Hatter respected Jack, he really couldn't stand him and his smug, royal face. It was the last thing he wanted to see right now.

"Look, Alice's gone now and we both know that we don't like each other. Let's just go our separate ways and get on with our lives." Hatter grimaced as he pushed past him and towards the doors but Jack caught his arm and stopped him from leaving.

"Very well, I was just wondering if you were going through the Looking Glass now or later? I really have to close it up soon so that we can get Wonderland rebuilt as soon as possible." The hint of a smile lingered in the very corner of his mouth.

"What?" Hatter's face contorted with confusion.

"Are you going through now or later, do you need to pack anything first or are you going now?" Jack asked,

"I'm not going through." Hatter stated, "I don't belong in her world."

"Does the place really matter when you're with the person you want to be with?" Jack asked, raising a perfect blonde eyebrow, "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a kingdom to run." The corners of his mouth twitched into a smile as he clapped Hatter on the back before walking to the centre of the room.

He was right. He could think of a million excuses of why he should stay in Wonderland, but all of them were nothing in comparison to the reason Jack had given him for going through the Looking Glass. Alice was everything.

"Any more to go through the Looking Glass?" A man called out to the room. This was his chance, he had to go through. But if he thought about it too much, he would talk himself out of it. He caught Charlie's eye.

"I was wondering when you would come to your senses." He said with a knowing smile, walking towards him, "Give Alice of Legend my love."

"But what if she doesn't want me there? What if I don't like her world? Isn't she better off as she was before she even met me? I'm nothing special." He looked to the ground,

"To her, I think there is no one better. Besides, there is only one way to find the answers you seek. Go, hurry." Charlie gave him a modest smile as he clutched Hatter's shoulder and pointed him towards the mirror.

"No more? Very well." The man operating the Looking Glass took the Stone of Wonderland from the mirror and placed it gracefully back into its box.

Hatter took a running start, the Looking Glass would only work a short while without the ring, but he had no idea just how short that short time would be, so he had to hurry. He cast a quick look over his shoulder and back at Charlie. He waved cheerily, but there was a sad look lingering about his face; he was all alone again now.

The Looking Glass shimmered and melted around him as he fell straight through it and into a dimension where he was constantly falling, after what seemed like a lifetime of falling, he hit solid ground and looked up groggily at his surroundings.

He had no idea where he was. Alice had told him of the place where she had fallen through the Looking Glass, she had said it was like an abandoned warehouse with a large mirror propped against the wall. The mirror that he had came from had been mounted to the wall and what surrounded it looked nothing like a warehouse, it was a public toilet with three cubicles, three sinks and three mirrors. Why had he come through that mirror and not the same one as Alice?

He had heard that there were many different mirrors that connected to the Looking Glass all over the world, but as far as he knew only one mirror at a time could be connected to. Where had he been taken to? Was all of this just a cruel trick from Jack; talk him into going then send him to the other side of her world so that he couldn't find her?

He placed a hand back on the mirror that he had come from, it was solid now and he had no way of getting back through. He was stuck here.

The doors to the toilet opened and an old woman walked in, she looked up at Hatter and screamed.

"Whoa, whoa whoa!" he held his hands up in surrender, "What's wrong with you?"

"Get out! Who do you think you are lurking in the women's toilets waiting to pounce on the next woman that comes through, well you're not attacking me!" she started hitting him with her handbag whilst still screaming.

Hatter made for the door as quick as he could, whilst still trying to fend off the attacks from the old woman. She had an American accent just like Alice's so he hoped that he wasn't too far from her. On the other side of the bathroom doors he was faced with a Bar. Almost every pair of eyes fell upon him at the same time. He stuck out here more than ever.

He tried to brush it off as he walked towards the door and was faced with the outside world. The first thing that hit him was that he was standing on the floor yet when he looked up there were no other floors above him. Buildings went into the sky, but nowhere near as high as the buildings in Wonderland did, and it appeared that the only way in or out of them was through their ground floor entrances. It was so strange.

The buildings that faced the Bar were all closed with metal shutters guarding their entrances, but they all looked like shops, or stores as they were called here, none of them looked anything like a warehouse to him. He had to find Alice, he just had to.

Looking both ways he noticed that the buildings got larger to his left as they went on. If the warehouse was anywhere, it would be that way. His feet started running before he could think about it anymore.

At the end of the street he could see a construction site and a large grey building opposite it. That must be the place. He accidently bumped into a group of construction workers as they were on their way out and they all roared with laughter at him.

Hatter looked down at his clothes and then at theirs. Everyone seemed to dress so strangely here, denim trousers and running shoes with jackets that looked way too thin and flimsy to keep anyone warm. As ridiculous as they all looked, he almost envied their clothes; they had nothing like them in outfit felt outdated compared to their modern clothes and he realized why he stood out so much; people here seemed to judge others on how they dressed above all else. Clothes were important here for status and fitting in.

Sure, people in Wonderland had fashions, uniforms for different positions, but no one cared what another person was wearing. Of course, mostly they were too busy trying to feel only the good and never the bad. Jealously and low self esteem were bad feelings.

He had to try and fit in a bit more here. He could see that some of the construction workers had left some clothes hanging in an office by the construction site. He kicked the door open and took a blue coat from the hook and put it on over his leather jacket before turning towards the grey building that he hoped Alice was inside of and walking through the big, open doors.

The inside of the building smelt damp and rotten in places. Boxes and other random objects littered the ground in front of him. The warehouse was massive, if Alice was still in here; it would take him forever to find her. A small circle of light was thrust in his face as a dark shadow walked towards him. The man was a security guard; Hatter could tell from his uniform, he could also see that the man carried a gun strapped to his belt.

"What are you doing in here? This is private property." The man asked, Hatter could see his hand hovering over his gun holster, he looked at Hatter's jacket and his hand relaxed a bit. "Do you work at the construction site across the road?" he asked and Hatter looked down at the coat he was wearing, the name of the construction group was printed across it in large white letters.

"Err, yeah. And I saw a girl run in here not long ago. She looked like she was in trouble and I just wanted to make sure that she was ok. I didn't see her come out, have you seen anyone?" he asked, peering around the man to get a better look in the warehouse.

"Nope, but I'll help you look." He smiled politely at Hatter, "You go left and I'll look right."

Hatter had a terrible feeling in the pit of his stomach that something had happened to Alice. What if someone had been waiting for her the other side of the mirror, someone who wasn't happy with how she had changed Wonderland? Or what if she had ended up through a different mirror just like Hatter had and didn't know where she was? Or even worse, what if she had got up, thought it was nothing more than a dream and had forgotten about him, and started her life again?

Just as his mind had thought up every worst case scenario, Hatter heard the security guard call out to him,

"She's over here!" he called and Hatter ran towards the sound of his voice. Alice lay on the floor, her dark hair partially covering her face and behind her the mirror that she must have fallen through. He gently moved the hair from her face and hooked it behind her ear.

"Is she alright?" Hatter asked, "What happened to her?"

The security guard tapped a large wooden box that lay in front of Alice, "I don't know, she could have tripped and hit her head. Lucky you saw her run in actually, I was just about to clock out and wouldn't have seen her until tomorrow morning." The man stood up and pulled a phone from his pocket, "I'll call for an ambulance."

Hatter gently stroked her face whilst the man walked outside to get a signal on his phone; she was freezing cold so he took the big blue construction coat off and wrapped her in it.

"It's going to be alright." He whispered to her, "I'm here now."

Alice remained as still as ever, although he could have sworn he saw her mouth twitch ever so slightly into a smile, but maybe it was just wishful thinking.

He cradled her in his arms as the security guard called out to him that the ambulance was there. Two paramedics followed him to where Hatter was kneeling holding Alice. The security guard looked Hatter over with suspicion. He realised that his reaction to Alice lying there unconscious was more than was to be expected of a concerned construction worker who had never met the girl, but right now Hatter couldn't care less.

"Her pulse is strong, slight lump on her forehead, she may have concussion though. What's her name?" the paramedic looked up at Hatter for an answer, he could feel the eyes of the security guard also fall upon him, watching him closely.

"I... I don't know." He lied, gently laying her back down on the floor and taking a step back, "I just saw her run in here, I don't actually know her." He looked quickly at the security guard from the corner of his eye; he was still looking at him suspiciously.

"We'll take her in to check her over, but I think she's going to be alright." The paramedic told Hatter and the security guard, "She was lucky you found her." she added with a smile.

Hatter traveled in the back of the ambulance with Alice, explaining to the paramedics that if it were him, he wouldn't want to be alone and that he wouldn't be able to rest until he knew if she was alright. They found her wallet in her pocket and from it contacted her mother. Hatter stayed with her until he was certain that she was safe in her hospital room before slipping away. Her mom would be there soon and he knew that he couldn't explain how he knew Alice to her, so he thought it was better to just slip away. He kissed her goodbye on her forehead and walked into the hallway, he was there for only five minutes before he saw a worried woman with short, curly hair and Alice's eyes sprint into her room. He could leave now, Alice didn't need him any more.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two

Hatter had no Oyster money, how did they make money in this world? He could trade something, he guessed, but he had nothing of any worth to trade. Back in Wonderland he had always thought of himself as quite educated about the Oyster world, but now that he was actually here he could see just how strange and foreign it really was.

It was late night as he walked out of the hospital and the crisp, cold night's air hit him sharply in the face. It was so loud despite its late hour, car horns beeped and siren's whirred, he wondered how anyone got any sleep in this place.

Sleep was another thing that he hadn't considered. He was used to sleeping rough by now, but sleeping rough in Wonderland and sleeping rough in Alice's world seemed like two completely different things. Nowhere looked safe and quiet, there were no trees or shaded areas to sleep under. The ground wasn't even soft and earthy. He couldn't see a single patch of grass, everywhere he looked he saw concrete and uninviting grey structures. What had he done? This world was crazy, all of a sudden he felt very home sick and wanted nothing more than to go home to his Tea Shop and the Great Library, he missed Charlie and understanding how the world worked. He couldn't imagine this place ever feeling like home to him.

All of a sudden an image of Alice flashed into his mind. Her eyes, her smile, how cute she looked when she pulled out her black belt moves on a bad guy. She was entirely perfect to him and it was her memory alone that made him stay. Not that he had much choice as he was certain that all Looking Glasses were now firmly sealed, but he had been debating as he sat down on the wooden bench that faced a fenced-off dying tree, whether or not Alice would want to see him.

If she had wanted him to come back with her to her world, she would have said so, wouldn't she? What if she didn't want him here? What if the feelings that he felt for her weren't reciprocated?

Before, he had thought that she had loved Jack, and that she held no room in her heart for him, but if that were still so, she wouldn't have turned down his proposal, would she? The longer he was left alone with his thoughts, the more venomous the thoughts that flooded his head were until eventually he lay back on the bench and fell asleep staring up at what he could see of the stars through the smog of the city.

The next morning he pick pocketed a man for his wallet and used the money to buy himself some clothes that made him fit in more. He had decided to check in on Alice, to make sure that she was ok and then give her the choice, if she wanted him to be here in her life, he would stay, but if he had read her wrong, and she wasn't pleased to see him, he would disappear and let her get on with her life.

When he got to her room all it held was Alice. He had half expected it to be filled with visitors; all holding up balloons and 'Get Well Soon' cards, but it was empty. Alice was still asleep in her bed, she looked peaceful, almost. He had only made it a step inside the door before he was followed in by the woman he had seen the previous night hurry into the room; Alice's mother. She was carrying a plastic cup that filled the air with the bitter stench of coffee and dark circles played around her eyes. He could tell that she was worried about Alice, which only fuelled the concerns he had himself for her. She shouldn't have passed out when she came through the Looking Glass. No one else had ever done so.

Maybe she had forgotten to breathe as she came through, or maybe she hit her head as she came through, like the security guard had said, or maybe something else entirely had happened. One thing was for sure though; he was determined to find out.

Alice's mother looked him up and down before wrinkling her nose at his smell. As she walked towards Alice's beside he took the chance to smell himself and realised that he hadn't had a shower in over a week now, he wasn't making a very good first impression on Alice's mother.

"Can I help you?" she asked, gracefully depositing herself into the chair beside Alice's bed.

"I'm the one that found her." He said nervously, he didn't know why it bothered him so much what this woman thought of him, but it did. He fumbled as he tried to take his hat off quickly and held it modestly in front of him, "I just wanted to know how she was."

Recognition of what he was saying seemed to flash in her eyes as she looked from Hatter to Alice to the corner of the room where the blue construction coat was hanging on a hook by the door.

"You're the construction worker." She stated, almost leaping from her chair and towards Hatter, "Thank you so much for finding her. If you hadn't have seen her run in, I don't know what would have happened."

"It was no problem." Hatter looked at the floor before his eyes fell upon Alice once more, "How's she doing? Do they know what's wrong with her yet?"

She looked back at her daughter and returned to her seat at her bedside. "She should wake up soon. The doctors say that there is nothing physically wrong with her, apart from all a small bruise on her head, she's healthy and should have woken up by now. It's like she doesn't want to wake up, like she's still holding on to something and has given up. She was always a stubborn one."

Hatter raised an eyebrow and tried to suppress a smile,

_Don't I just know it,_ he thought to himself. He also smiled to himself at the idea that she was holding onto something inside of her head. What if she was holding onto Wonderland? To him. What if she didn't want to say goodbye as much as he did and was looking for a way to get back there to him?

Just then something small and metallic buzzed and flashed on the tabletop beside Alice's bed. He realised that it was a phone, much like the one the security guard had used to call for an ambulance. What a useful invention, he had thought. A way to get messages to people all around the world, so simple and easy. Wonderland would do good, he thought, to adopt some of the objects that this world had to offer.

Alice's mom seemed to pounce on the phone and frantically press the buttons to see who the message was from, seeming disappointed, she placed the phone back on the table and looked up to meet Hatter's curious look.

"It's Alice's Cell phone." She explained, "I've been trying to get in touch with her boyfriend you see, Jack Chase." Hatter nearly choked on air, unperturbed, she continued, "They had a fight right before this happened, but I just know that she would want him here and that he would want to know what was happening to her. I've tried calling and texting him, but he never answers his phone."

"I just guess he's busy." Hatter offered, _Busy trying to put Wonderland back together_, he added to himself. "I hope that she gets better soon, I'd really like to know if she's ok." He turned to leave,

"Wait, what's your name?" she called after him, Hatter froze to the spot, "David." He answered after a long pause, "David Hatter."

"Well David, thank you so much for finding Alice. I'll tell you what, you could come by the house if you'd like, once she's awake and back to normal, meet her. I'm sure she'd like to give you her thanks too."

"I'd like that." He smiled to himself, gave Alice one final, longing look and left her room. From out in the hall he heard her wake up and cry into her mother's shoulder. Her father was dead, she had never given up hope of finding him and now that hope had been crushed with her father dying in her arms. He remembered the pain in her face when he led her away from his body and the tears that decorated her face and made him want to do anything that he could to make her happy again.

Alice held onto her mother for support but there was something strange, something different. She could have sworn that she could smell Hatter; the familiar, homely scent of him seemed to linger around her. Rolling her eyes she supposed it was nothing more than the remains of her dream still hovering around her. Hatter was back in Wonderland, a place that she couldn't go any more. She knew it was real; she was not naive enough to try and think that she had invented Wonderland, and that it had all been nothing more than a figment of her imagination. She knew that it existed. It was just barred from her now.

There was no use in trying to hold on to the things that she couldn't have. She had learnt the hard way with her father that the more she tried to hold onto them; the more it hurt her in the long run. As much as it pained her to think of it; Hatter was in Wonderland. She would never see him again.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter three

Alice's apartment didn't feel much like her home any more. Standing in the vacant hallway it seemed too empty and quiet compared to the excitement and adventure she had felt in Wonderland. It felt like she was a child on Boxing Day, the event that she had been so looking forward to and enjoying was over and there was no going back to it now. Although when she was a child she would at least have the presents from the day before to occupy her, this time she had nothing to show for her time in Wonderland. Even the Oyster glow had disappeared when she had fallen back through the Looking Glass. It was as if her adventures in Wonderland had never happened and she had merely invented them all. Only she knew the truth that lay behind the mirror.

Hatter did what he had to do. He didn't want to be a thief in this world, but he had to make a good impression when he met Alice again, if he were to convince her to be with him he didn't want to turn up dirty and smelling like the back-end of a horse. He had become quite good at pick-pocketing lately. He was careful, of course, to only steal from those who looked like they had money to spare and was careful not to take too much from one person, but he needed the money for a room, sleep didn't matter too much to him but getting a shower sure did.

Alice's mother had been more than happy to invite the man that found her daughter back to their home. If he didn't know any better he would have said that she almost seemed to like him, which was strange; in Wonderland no one liked him. No one cared about him. Sure, he had the Tea Shop and trying to keep the refugees fed was like a full time job but he never got any thanks for it, no one ever trusted him or cared what happened to it. Most of the time they wanted him dead or looked at him like something that they had scraped off the bottom of their shoe. But here and now he felt like a part of something, even if that was just with Alice.

The buzzer sounded loudly throughout the apartment, "Oh, I almost forgot." Carol said, holding a hand to her head, "David, the construction worker that found you, he just wanted to pop by to make sure that you were alright. Very sweet." She seemed to emphasize the last phrase and Alice could sense her approval of the man. To be honest Alice was quite happy for a change in subject from 'Jack Chase' and why he hadn't been in contact if he had been so desperate to give her a ring before. She didn't have the energy to try and even come up with an excuse for Jack's disappearance; instead she had to listen to her mother's non-stop ramblings about how much she liked that Jack and how Alice had scared him off for good with her fears.

The door to the apartment opened and a strange feeling hit Alice in the pit of her stomach. She knew before she had even looked up from her doorway who 'David' really was. His eyes met hers; they were cautious, nervous even but at the same time relieved and happy to see her. She ran at full speed into his arms, he had just about enough time to take off his hat before she was there, where she belonged.

"Finally." He whispered breathlessly, holding her tight against him. He didn't know how long he had waited for that hug and he couldn't describe just how good it felt, all he knew was that he had her back, his Alice. In that moment he knew he had made the right decision to come through the Looking Glass after her.

Alice looked up into Hatter's eyes; she knew what she wanted now. She wanted him, it had always been him. He seemed to feel it too as their lips met all of a sudden and Hatter whispered against them breathlessly, "I missed you." Before returning the kiss with as much passion as he could.

It was fitting, Alice thought as she looked sideways at their reflections in the mirrors on either side of them, that their first kiss would be trapped within a hall of mirrors after a mirror very nearly separated them. She also caught sight of her mother within the mirror and nearly burst out laughing. She pulled away from the kiss and took hold of Hatter's hand.

"I'll explain it all later." She offered to her mother and led Hatter out of the door, "I promise."

"But wait, Alice." Carol called after her but it was too late, she had already disappeared down the stairs.

"I thought I would never see you again." Alice smiled and stopped to look up at Hatter, he leant in for another kiss and she stood with her back against the stairwell wall as she kissed him back, she stopped to regain her breath.

"There's plenty of time for that later." She laughed and gently pushed him away,

"I think we need to make up for lost time." Hatter smiled cheekily and leaned in for another kiss but Alice pushed him away playfully,

"There's somewhere that I want to take you first." She took hold of his hand and led him out onto the street. From there she turned left and led Hatter inside of a red building with circular tables and chairs laid out in front of it and many more inside, all covered with checked tablecloths and plastic flowers in small plastic vases.

Once inside, Alice found them a table and sat Hatter down opposite her, before long a waitress came to take their order.

"Can I help you?" she asked in a mildly-bored tone.

"Pepperoni pizza please and two cokes." Alice ordered and Hatter's face lit up.

"Pizza?" he repeated with joy,

"Yep. Usually I would take dates out for dinner at a posh restaurant or something, but for you Hatter, I thought I would go back to the awkward teenager approach." She smiled, "And if you're real good, I might even take you to see a movie after as well."

"So is this a date then?" Hatter asked with a smile,

"I'd say so yeah." She met his eyes and had to change the subject, "So what made you follow me? I thought you were going to stay in Wonderland?" she asked,

"Do you really have to ask? Wonderland was no fun anymore without you. I came straight away, although I came out through the wrong mirror, luckily yours wasn't too far away."

"Wait? Wonderland is behind every mirror?" she asked,

"Not every mirror but any mirror. They were scattered all around your world, most of them are big an antique looking, like the one you came through, but some can be small and since the Queen of Heart's rein, some are modern too, like the one I came through was mounted to a public toilet wall." He looked up to meet Alice's smirk, "She needed as many Oysters as she could get so by sending people through as many different mirrors as she could, she could harvest a wider selection of Oysters."

"Do you think Jack will open up the Looking Glass again?" Alice asked, a crease forming between her eyebrows,

"He was pretty keen to keep the two worlds separate last time I saw him." Hatter replied,

"So then you're stuck here." Alice said and Hatter's face fell,

"You don't want me here." He stated, "That doesn't matter, I could find my own place, get a job, you wouldn't have to see me." He said looking sideways, "What kinds of jobs do people have here anyway? I could do anything really, apart from clean, I'm not cleaning out toilets for nobody, not even you Alice, and..." Alice held a finger to his lip with a raised eyebrow,

"Will you just shut up already and let me finish?" Hatter sighed and nodded in response, "I want you here, but what if you want to get back? Wonderland is your home."

"Anywhere that you are Alice, is my home."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter four

_**Four months later...**_

Alice leant against the kitchen counter with a warm mug clutched close to her chest as her mother busily chopped vegetables.

"I was thinking of taking Ha...David to that village we went to last year. For our anniversary." Alice stared off into the distance as she spoke,

"Anniversary? You've only been together a few months."

"Exactly, the anniversary of the day that he came back." Alice smiled to herself as she drained the last of her coffee.

"Yes, explain to me again how it is that you two met?" Carol asked, raising an eyebrow and turning around to face Alice.

"I told you mom." Alice said, turning her back to her mother as she placed her mug in the sink, "We met before I met Jack, he had to move away and I thought I'd never see him again, that's why I never mentioned him to you, but then after he found me that night in the old Warehouse, he decided not to leave after all. He wanted to stay here, with me." Alice smiled; the last part was at least true. "Anyway, I think he'll like the village. He's from a place where there's a lot of countryside, you know, lots of trees and grass. I think he liked the city at first because it was different but I can just tell that he misses the little things. I also have a little surprise for him." Alice smiled to herself as she stared at a picture of the two of them stuck to the fridge.

"What kind of surprise?" Carol's tone changed as she put down her knife and turned to look at Alice, "You're not?" her eyes travelled to Alice's flat stomach,

"What? No, no!" Alice clutched her stomach protectively, "I've bought us a house." She explained,

"A house? But the two of you live here." Carol's face grew pale,

"Mom, we can't live here forever. We need space, you know, a place of our own."

"What's wrong with finding a place in the city?"

"Mom..." Alice furrowed her brow at her mother just as the front door opened, "We'll talk about it later." she skipped into the main room and kissed Hatter on the cheek.

"Bought another hat have we?" she smiled as she looked at the shopping bags in his hands,

"Just the one." He smiled like a child as he took it out of the bag and placed it on Alice's head, "But I also got this." He grinned as he took a can opener out of the bag and handed it to Alice.

"Oh...a can opener... you shouldn't have?" she forced a smile at the object.

"Yeah. It's amazing. I mean cans of food themselves are amazing enough, but this." He held it up and smiled; "I can't tell you how useful this would have been in Won..." he trailed off as Carol walked into the room.

"Well, I'll put it in the suitcase, as I've got a surprise for you too." Alice smiled as she threw it down on the sofa, "We're taking a little trip, to a village that I think you'll like. It's all organised, I've rented a house for the whole week and we can spend our four month anniversary there."

The village was much as Alice had remembered it. A small, rural place with plenty of trees and grass and mostly friendly people. She pulled up in her borrowed car in front of the house that she had rented and stared up at the building.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Alice stated, her eyes filling with wonder as she took it all in. It had a bright red door with an apple tree planted out front and a big rose bush was creeping up the side of the house.

"At last, actual grass." Hatter grinned as he got out of the car to inspect the front garden,

"Typical, I bring you here to enjoy a romantic anniversary getaway, and you're more interested in the grass." Alice rolled her eyes,

"I'm sorry, but come on! Look at it, it's actually green and not like that muddy stuff we had back in the city. You know, back in Wonderland I had my own patch of green grass..." he began but Alice cut him off,

"Do you miss it? Wonderland I mean." Alice looked to the ground guiltily.

"Yes and no." Hatter half-smiled, "It was my home and I guess I miss the things that I never thought I'd miss. Like the trees or the grass or just understanding things in general. But I would never go back there, not without you at least. Wonderland may have its...well wonders, but I've grown to love your world. With its handy little inventions like the internet or the cell phone, or that thing, what's it called? The thing you showed me last week for cooking ready meals..."

"Microwaves?" Alice offered,

"Yes! Microwaves! I love your world Alice, and I can see us really settling down here."

"I'm glad you said that actually, because, I have another surprise for you." She scuttled ahead of him and stood in front of the front door, looking back at him with a grin, "I want us to live here."

"We are, for the next week." Hatter stated,

"No, not just for the next week. I want us to live here for the next ten years, at least. I bought this house Hatter, for us."

"You bought this house?" Hatter asked incredulously,

"Yes, well I rented it for the first week, then I said I'd give her an answer as to if we wanted to buy it at the end of the week." She stood with her arms wide but they fell when Hatter's reaction wasn't as she had pictured.

"But Alice, I've just got used to life in the city. I moved worlds for you, and now that I'm finally settled with a job and a place to live you want me to move towns too?"

"I thought you'd like it here, please Hatter, give it a chance." She walked towards him and took hold of his hands, "Trust me." She pleaded with her eyes.

"Fine, I trust you. But please, Alice, can you promise me that you won't make a decision until we are both agreed? Let's just get through this week then see how we feel at the end of it."

"Great." Alice grinned and took hold of his hand, "There's something I want to show you." She flung open the door and led him up the stairs and to the first room on the left. The big, oak door opened to reveal a beautiful master bedroom. In the centre of the room lay a double bed with a patchwork quilt laid lovingly across the bottom of it, on the wall opposite the bed hung an ornate mirror with an intricate bronze design decorating it's edges and on the far side a set of double glass-pained doors with netted curtains sat closed, waiting to be opened.

"This would be our room, and the best part of it is..." she ran over to the double doors and flung them open to reveal a balcony that overlooked the woodland area of the village, "It has the best view."

She stood out on the balcony and Hatter wrapped his arms around her before kissing her neck, "This is beautiful." He sighed, "All that's missing is giant chess pieces and Charlie banging on about toenail readings and I'd think we were back in Wonderland." Hatter said and Alice laughed, relaxing into his body.

Night had just started to fall on the sleepy little village so Hatter and Alice returned inside and shut the balcony doors. Hatter lay on his stomach on the bed with his feet on the pillows whilst Alice propped herself up with her elbow as she studied him. He was picking at the patchwork quilt.

"The woman who owns this house made it." She explained and Hatter looked up, dosed, as if he had just been disturbed from a deep thought.

"Oh, I like it." He smoothed it out and Alice crawled down the bed until she was beside him,

"Really? I've always thought they were a bit old ladyish myself." She shrugged her shoulders,

"No. My mum used to make them; I used to sleep with one at the bottom of my bed almost every night. She had cut all of the pieces from things that meant a lot to her, like a patch from the underskirt of her wedding dress, a patch from the shirt my dad wore when he first met her, a patch from the curtains in the house that they lived together in; things like that." Hatter explained, looking away and blushing slightly at the fact he was revealing a part of himself,

"When you put it like that it sounds really special." Alice said, running her hand over the many different materials in the quilt, "You don't talk a lot about your family, why is that?"

"Because there's not much to tell." He coughed to signify that he was ready to change the subject, "So what made you like this village so much?"

"I don't know really. Me and mom came here once last year when I thought I had a lead on where dad was." She rolled her eyes at her old hopes of finding her father in her own world, "I was a different person back then, but I could still tell that it was somewhere magical. I hadn't thought about it since, until the other week when I found a picture of mom and I here, it just reminded me of Wonderland so much, I knew I had to take you here, I contacted the woman who owns this house and we came up with the offer of a kind of try before you buy deal."

"I don't know. I think you've been a city girl too long, you'll miss it." Hatter smiled,

"I think you've been away from fresh air for too long." Alice raised an eyebrow, "One week here, Hatter, and you'll be begging to stay longer."

"We'll see."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter five

Alice was standing in the middle of the forest, only it wasn't just any forest. The trees were taller and the air was colder, she knew exactly where she was; Wonderland.

The first thing that entered her mind was how on earth did she get back there, but all of a sudden that didn't matter very much, she was met with the familiar screech of the Jabberwocky and ran before she could think any more about it.

"Hatter!" she called out at the top of her lungs, was he here too? "Wait." She thought aloud. This had to be a dream. How else could she have gotten back into Wonderland? The Looking Glasses were all sealed.

Alice stopped still where she was and let the Jaberwock catch up to her. If it were a dream she would merely wake up if it tried to kill her.

"Come on Alice." She muttered to herself as it got closer, she could feel the vibrations the beast made as it ran, "Wake up already." She could feel its breath on her as it towered above her. It felt so real, what if it wasn't a dream? She cowered away from the Jaberwock just as it was about to strike her but no pain came. She waited but after a safe amount of time she decided to peek up from behind her arms to find herself standing back in the Warehouse where she had fallen through the mirror.

The mirror leant against the wall behind her, she crouched down to look at it and saw instead of her own face reflected back at her, Hatter was sat against it instead. He had his back to her.

"Hatter?" she called out but he didn't hear her, "HATTER!" she cried, banging on the mirror with the palms of her hands. His face turned slightly towards her, but he didn't see her. Instead, his line of sight was met with a flash of gold material and pink flesh. Duchess.

The Duchess sashayed seductively into the frame of the mirror and stroked the side of Hatter's face elegantly, her long, delicate hand stopping by his chin before she moved in close to lay a soft kiss on his lips and whisper something into his ear. Her face turned towards Alice, only her eyes fixed upon her rather than looking straight through her like Hatter did. Her feline eyes, delicately framed by dark lashes and an icy coldness observed Alice's confused expression with great glee.

"I'm going to take him from you Alice." She said softly, her ruby red lips shaping the words with an almost seductive manner, "Just like I took Jack. Although, to be honest, he was mine far before he was yours." She ran a hand along the length of Hatter's shoulder, her other hand wrapped itself around his back, "But let's face it. Jack only used you. It was me that he always loved. Who could love you next a Duchess?"

Her eyes travelled to the side of Hatter's face to Alice and back again. She moved with a cat-like elegance as she moved her face in front of Hatter's and laid another soft kiss on his lips, her red painted hand cupping the side of his face a little more roughly than Alice had expected.

"Hatter?" Alice banged on the mirror again, "Hatter! It's me! Alice. Hatter?" Tears started to prick at her eyes as she watched Hatter start to kiss her back until their kiss got more and more passionate. Yet still, she couldn't tear her eyes away from him.

"No." She told herself, "It's not real. I'm just dreaming." She looked back up at the pair of them as Hatter laced his arms around the Duchess and she pulled herself closer to him, "It's just a dream." She pulled back her fist and punched the mirror with as much force as she could. It shattered into a million pieces, only the room started to break off too, as if it were made of nothing more than glass. Soon the whole room had shattered and she was left floating in nothingness.

"Alice?" Charlie's voice, barely audible, echoed into the darkness. "Alice of legend?"

"Charlie? I'm in here! I'm here!" she couldn't hide the relief that she felt at hearing his voice. She waited a while but still no reply came, "Charlie!" she called again,

"Alice, we need you. Where are you?" Charlie's voice was getting further and further away.

"Charlie! I'm here." She tried to move through the nothingness but it was impossible. It was like she was floating but at the same time completely stuck as if the air had become as thick as quick sand and weighed her to the spot.

"Alice..." his voice was barely a whisper as a feeling of suffocation creeped up her and she felt like she was being weighed down even more. She couldn't move, she couldn't breathe or scream for help.

All of a sudden she awoke with a start in her bed. Hatter was asleep, sprawled across the bed next to her with his face half squashed by his pillow. Even though his mouth was half open and he snored slightly, Alice thought that he had never looked cuter. Especially now that she was looking at him without the Duchess all over him. She laid a gentle kiss on his forehead before quietly throwing the blankets off of her and pulling a purple satin dressing gown around herself and creeping out onto the balcony. She looked out over the trees; the sun was just starting to rise behind them casting an eerie glow about the place. She could of almost swore that she could hear Charlie singing faintly as the wind picked up her hair and a cold chill took over her.

She creeped back inside and gently shut the balcony doors. The ornate mirror that hung opposite the bed caught her eye. She gently ran her hand across the frame. Shakily she moved her hand to the glass and touched it, gently at first but then more firmly. She just had to be absolutely certain. Hatter crept up behind her and wrapped his arms around her,

"It's not opening, Alice. No matter how hard you push the glass." He muttered softly into her ear.

"Do you ever wonder what's going on there right now?" she asked,

"Sometimes. But I'm sure it's doing fine. Jack and Duchess will make a great King and Queen and I'm sure that Wonderland is back on track, or at least on its way there." He smiled but Alice couldn't help grinding her teeth at the mention of Duchess. _Stop it._ She told herself. It was just a dream, it didn't mean anything.

"I miss it." Alice admitted, "I miss Charlie and not being the only one that knew that there was magic out there."

"As much as I never thought it would happen, I miss Charlie sometimes too. But I'm sure that the old crock pot's doing fine. Inventing the next gravity assisted snare or whatever." He laughed softly and Alice relaxed slightly,

"Yeah, I'm sure you're right." She sighed her relief and tried to shake off the remains of her dream.

"So what are we going to do today?" Hatter asked,

"I've got a few ideas." Alice smiled, disappearing into the bathroom, "Get yourself dressed, we're gonna go for a little walk."

"Walk?" Hatter repeated, leaning his back against the bathroom door, "Walk where?"

"Just around the village." Alice replied, opening the door and causing Hatter to stagger backwards. "There's an old friend that I want you to meet and a few places that I thought you might like."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter six

Alice and Hatter walked down the street hand in hand, their shoulders brushing gently as they walked slowly, taking in the sights. Hatter thought back just over four months ago, back to when Alice was a mysterious Oyster who was willing to do anything just to get Jack back. He thought back to when he truly fell in love with her, despite the fact that she still had feelings for Jack. He thought to the times that she laughed, the times that she cried, every kiss and hug and how he knew that he loved her and wanted to spend the rest of his life with her.

Alice pulled Hatter inside of an antique shop. The insides were full of various different antiques all ordered by what type of furniture they were. At the very far side of the store a desk sat with a middle-aged woman asleep on a stack of papers, her mouth was slightly ajar and a small amount of dribble was escaping and collecting in a pool on her desk. Alice cleared her throat loudly.

"Huh? Wha.. I'm awake! I'm awake! I only closed my eyes for a moment." The woman had a British accent and a slightly chubby face. Her blonde hair, streaked with the odd grey was pulled back into a bun and a pair of glasses sat lopsided on the top of her head. She looked up at Alice and recognition flashed in her eyes. "Alice Hamilton? Is that really you?"

"Amber!" Alice smiled and the British woman scuttled round the desk to hug her, Amber broke the hug to stand back and look Alice up and down, it was only then that she seemed to notice Hatter, she smiled pleasantly at him but there was something about him that unnerved her.

"So you're back? Is your mother here too?" she looked behind the two to see if anyone else had followed them inside,

"No, it's just us. Which reminds me." Alice smiled at Hatter, "Amber, I'd like you to meet my boyfriend Ha...David. David, this is Amber, she was very helpful last time I was here, trying to help me find my father." Alice looked to the ground at the mention of her dad, it still hurt her thinking about him, Hatter put a comforting arm around her waist.

"It's nice to meet you." Hatter smiled politely,

"Likewise." Her smile was forced towards Hatter, "Any luck in finding your old man yet?"

"Yeah, I did actually, he...he erm, died." Alice stared at the ground again, "But at least now I know, before the worst thing was not knowing where or what he was doing."

"I'm so sorry to hear it sweetie." She looked sympathetically towards Alice, "What can I help you with today, anyway?"

"I just wanted David to meet you, and to have a look around if that's alright with you?" Alice asked,

"Go right ahead." She motioned her arms for them to go where they pleased before returning to her desk to try and fashion it into some kind of an order.

Alice took Hatter's hand and led him to the very far corner, it was partially hidden by a large beam, but once he got close he could see the thought behind it. The whole back wall was covered in mirrors, of every shape, size and possible description. As Hatter got closer he could see that not only did they cover the back wall, but they also started to creep back onto the adjacent and opposite wall. They were truly trapped between a hall of mirrors.

Alice spun around on the spot, her reflection spinning with her a hundred times over. "Isn't it magical?"

"It's something alright." Hatter mused, walking up close and gently touching the frame of one of the mirrors. His home land could be behind any one of these mirrors and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. One mirror in particular caught his eye, it was large and more ornate than the rest, more than anything though there was something familiar about the mirror. An old feeling that he just couldn't shake.

"Anything I can help you with yet?" Amber asked, appearing out of nowhere and causing Hatter to jump,

"Yeah, that mirror." Hatter pointed to the one he had just been admiring, "Where did it come from?"

"Oh the same place most of the things in my shop come from I suppose, they come from all over the place. Some comes from sellers, some from auctions, some even from regular people, just wanting to make a bit of extra money. I have a list in the back if you're interested in buying it."

"No, it doesn't matter." Hatter looked up at it once more, "It just caught my eye, that's all."

"How long are you two in town?" Amber asked, averting her attention back to Alice,

"Until the end of the week, we're renting the house at the end of the street. Number 12."

"Oh, it's such a beautiful house." Amber chirped, "I thought it was up for sale though." She started to lead Alice away from the mirrors,

"It was, we have until the end of the week to make our decision of whether or not we want to buy it."

"Oh, so you could be moving here more permanently?"

Hatter had started to tune out their chatter, he could have sworn that ever so quietly he had heard a whisper, so faint and yet so familiar. It had sounded like Charlie. He tried to shake it off and rejoined the girls,

"So we'll see you again later in the week, Amber." Alice smiled and hugged the woman,

"Yes, it was nice meeting you." Hatter smiled,

"Likewise." She repeated before returning to her desk in the far corner.

"I don't think she liked me very much." Hatter said to Alice as she looped her arm through his.

"I'm sure she'll love you once she gets to know you a little better."

They walked further down the street and Alice stopped outside of a gap in buildings that led onto a farm.

"I forgot about this." She thought aloud, "Come on, this way." She pulled Hatter down the small country path and towards the farm,

"Erm, Alice? Not that I don't trust you and your ideas of a 'fun day out', but why exactly are you dragging me to a farm?" Hatter asked, lagging behind.

"You'll see." They walked that way for another five minutes until Alice stopped outside of a set of stables. A girl who looked no older than 19 poked her head around the corner and smiled at the two,

"Are you interested in lessons?" she asked,

"Horses?" Hatter asked, confused,

"I don't think he really needs lessons, if I'm honest." Alice smiled, "He practically grew up on Horseback."

"Oh, well we have a few horses that are free right now if you'd like to go for a ride." The woman smiled warmly. "If you'd just like to come through here, we could sort it all out."

"That would be great, thank you." Alice followed her into an office where an old man sat behind a desk, she sorted out the necessary things whilst Hatter stared at her curiously, once they were alone he voiced his thoughts,

"Why horses?" Hatter looked at Alice curiously,

"Because you're too used to cars and buses. I wanted you to get back a bit of your old identity. You're starting to forget who you really are."

"I know who I am." Hatter protested,

"Prove it." Alice challenged just as the stable girl came back with their horses. Hatter rolled his eyes at Alice and effortlessly swung his leg over the horse and mounted her perfectly,

"Wow, a real pro I see." The stable girl smiled, "Do you want any help, miss?" she looked to Alice,

"No thank you." Alice smiled politely, "I can manage." It took her slightly longer than Hatter to get up, but she got there in the end. Hatter squeezed his knees together and his horse shot off towards the field in front of them, Alice copied him and soon caught up.

"You have an hour!" the stable girl called after them.

Hatter sped off around the field, his horse kicking up grass as it went. It took a while, but when Alice caught up to him she could already see the smile shining on his face,

"See, that's what I mean, when was the last time you felt excited and accelerated like that?" Alice asked, "And I mean about something other than a can opener."

"Okay, so maybe you were right about the whole horse-riding part. But I'm telling you, you don't get malls in small towns like this."

"I'm not really the shopping type of girl, Hatter." She smiled,

"Okay then, well you don't get big martial arts studios here."

"I don't care about that. Anyway, can we please stop talking about the city and just enjoy ourselves. We've got all week to worry about it."

"Fine." Hatter made his horse circle Alice's, "Race you to the fence post."

"You're on." She laughed softly but her competitive gene kicked in and she urged her horse forward, desperate to beat Hatter to the finishing line.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter seven

Alice knelt in front of the mirror once more. She had been here before, she knew what was going to happen, yet for some reason she just couldn't manage to tear herself away from the mirror. The familiar flash of gold and blonde hair appeared in the very background, swishing her hips slowly as one golden heel after another met the cold, shiny floor until she was face to face with Hatter. This time he stood and embraced her with open arms, very much the same way that he embraced Alice only that morning. He was wearing his old brown leather jacket and his dark hair flicked up around his hat like it used to when she had first met him.

"It's just a dream, Alice." She told herself through gritted teeth as Duchess hooked her thigh around Hatter's hip and he held it in place, "It's not real."

Duchess striped Hatter of his jacket and tossed it to the side as he began kissing her neck passionately, "It's not real." She scrunched her eyes shut and tried to block out the sounds of them kissing noisily. Alice was just about ready to smash the mirror again when a voice cut through her revulsion,

"Duchess?" Jack Heart called out as he appeared in the room, his bow tie hanging undone around his neck and his hands shoved into the pockets of his red trousers. Duchess pushed Hatter away from her suddenly and slapped him across the face; her lipstick was still smudged across his chin and lips.

"What's going on? Hatter?" Jack stormed over to the scene just as the Duchess flung herself into his arms, crying,

"He forced himself upon me, Jack." Duchess cried into his shoulder,

"Don't worry, my love, I'll deal with him." Jack gave a small smile as he pulled a jewelled blade from his waistband, the hilt of which was shaped like a heart and the light hit it gloriously. In a sudden movement he surged forwards and plunged the blade into Hatter's heart before leading Duchess away. Hatter slid down the glass, gasping for air.

"Hatter!" Alice banged on the glass, forgetting herself completely, "No! Hatter!" Tears pricked her eyes like angry hot raindrops, all desperate to race each other to her chin. She banged on the glass with all of her might but it was no use, she couldn't get through and he couldn't hear her. Hatter's face slumped towards her as he took his last breath and his eyes became glassy. "No." She squeaked.

Alice woke up huddled in a ball in the bed. Hatter and herself had been so exhausted when they had come home that they hadn't even bothered to get undressed before they collapsed on the bed in a heap. He was sprawled across the bottom of the bed with his one arm draped over the edge; he slept like a dead man. Tears that she couldn't control overtook her as she cautiously poked him in the stomach. He grunted and opened and closed his mouth a few times as if there was a taste he couldn't quite place inside of it. Alice let out a sigh of relief and tried to wipe her face but it was too late, Hatter had woken up.

"What's wrong?" he shot up into a sitting position and looked around the room for the danger, when he found none, he averted his attention back to Alice,

"It's nothing." She insisted, "You'll think I'm stupid." She wrapped her arms around her knees and tried to shake the dream,

"No, please tell me. I want to know what's wrong."

"I dreamt that you were...that you were dead. Jack killed you." Alice decided to leave out the whole Duchess part for fear of sounding like a jealous little girl.

"I'm fine, look. Still alive." He held up both of his hands and tapped his chest thoroughly, "It was just a dream." He pulled her closer to him and she sank into his chest, taking in his familiar smell.

"It felt so real though. I just can't lose you Hatter, not after what happened to my dad, I don't think I could take it."

"I'm not going anywhere," He muttered soothingly, stroking back her hair, "I promise."

"Yeah, and you better not." She sat up so that she could look at him better, "Because I don't care how dead you are, if you die, I will kill you."

"See, there you go, a threat. I can't die now; I'd be too scared that you might try to kill me." He kissed the top of Alice's head gently.

Hatter soon settled back to sleep with his arms around Alice, but she lay there a little while longer awake. She was terrified that if she closed her eyes she would be taken back to the Warehouse where she would have to witness either the seduction or the murder of her boyfriend once more, and frankly she didn't know which one was worse.

Daylight filtered through the curtains waking up Hatter. He glanced back at Alice who was gently snoring into her pillow. He was glad that she had been able to rest at last and didn't want to wake her. Instead he decided to get started on a surprise for when she woke up, although if he were to be honest, it was as much for him as it was for Alice.

An hour or so later the sound of drilling woke Alice from her dreamless sleep. Confused and dazed, she shuffled over to the balcony, wrapping her satin dressing gown around her as she went. Hatter was sat at the top of the first tree directly opposite the balcony. He was wearing jeans and a grey cotton t shirt that was soaked with sweat under his arms and he held an electric drill in his hands that he was using to secure a plank of wood to the tree. He looked up and saw Alice, his dark hair flopping over into his face slightly.

"What are you doing!" she called over to him, and he looked at her like a guilty school boy,

"Come and look for yourself!" he called back. Alice slipped on her big black boots and made her way out into the garden. She looked up at the tall tree just as Hatter climbed down and kissed her on the cheek.

"What'cha doing?" Alice asked, looking up at the tree once more.

"Well you wanted me to get back to the old me, the me in Wonderland, so I thought I'd make us a tree house." He smiled confidently,

"Right, and did you ever make a tree house in Wonderland?"

"Not since I was about eleven, no, but..." Hatter began but Alice cut him off,

"And you do realize that we don't actually own this house, right?"

"Well, even if we don't buy it, it'll be our own little mark to say that we were here." Hatter insisted, "Now are you going to stand there and patronise me some more, or are you going to help?"

Alice rolled her eyes, "I'll help." She smiled, "But you're making dinner tonight then."

"Okay."

"Actually on second thoughts." Alice added, remembering the last time he cooked, "Maybe it's better if I just cook."

"Tell you what. I'll help you with the dinner if you help me with the tree house, we'll work together, ok?"

"Sounds like a deal to me." Alice smiled, "So what do you want me to do first?"

Alice handed him a few planks of wood before climbing up the tree herself to get a better look at what was going on. They definitely had a floor now that was more or less even; all that they needed now was walls and a roof.

"How were you planning on making the walls? There are only two planks of wood left." Alice noted.

"I erm... I was going, I thought that maybe we could... okay, I don't know."

"It's fine. We can figure it out later. It's just that it's more of a tree raft than a tree house." Alice giggled.

"It's been so long since I made one, I can't remember how you make the walls." Hatter defended,

"And oh, it's beautiful, it truly is." Alice grinned, "All that's missing is a few homely touches."

"Homely touches?" Hatter repeated,

"Yep. Tell you what. You go and start cooking the spaghetti. Remember how I taught you? Whilst I add a few touches and we can eat up here tonight."

"Okay." Hatter disappeared down the tree and into the kitchen but Alice stared out over the trees for a moment. There it was again, so faintly that it could have been nothing more than the wind rushing through the leaves, but in her heart, it felt like Charlie calling out her name once more.

She climbed down the tree and returned a few moments later with a black bag full of items. She laid them out in the tree before returning to the kitchen to see how Hatter was getting on. Luckily nothing had been burnt yet, so she stood back and let him get on with it. Every so often though, he would cast a glance back at Alice to make sure that he was doing the right thing. Once it was finished they both took a plate of the spaghetti bolognaise and very carefully climbed up the tree and onto the little platform that they had built into it.

Across the centre of the wooden floor, the patchwork quilt was laid out with two pillows at the head of it, beside it a bottle of wine and two glasses and candles that were already lit as the darkness started to fall around them, were dotted around.

"Not that I don't love the romantic touch with the candles, isn't it a bit of a fire hazard to have them in a tree?" Hatter asked, taking a seat on the patchwork blanket.

"Maybe, but I don't care so much, like you said, it's romantic, and I want to be able to see your face tonight." She gracefully sat down next to Hatter on the blanket and placed her plate in front of her.

Once the food had been eaten and the wine drank, Alice blew out the candles and lay back on the blanket with Hatter beside her, staring up at the stars.

"Alice." Hatter muttered, still staring up ahead, "I want us to live here. I want you to tell the woman that we'll buy this house. That is, if you still want to live here?" Alice shot up to look Hatter in the eye,

"Are you being serious?"

"100 percent." He smiled, looking Alice in the eyes. She had never looked more beautiful than she did in that moment, her features slightly highlighted by the moonlight.

"I'll call her tomorrow." Alice smiled, "Thank you."

"No, thank _you_, Alice. You were right. I needed this place. Just like I need you Alice." He sat up and fiddled for something in his pocket,

"I was going to save this for our anniversary tomorrow, but you've made this place look so beautiful tonight that it would be a waste if I didn't."

"Hatter?" Alice's face suddenly became very serious as Hatter pulled a small, velvet-covered box from his pocket and presented it to her.

"Alice, you already know that I would do anything for you, I would die for you if I had to, and although we haven't known each other for years and years like other couples have, I think we're stronger than any of them and we will be together forever. I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Alice Hamilton, will you marry me?" Hatter took the ring from the box and hovered it over the end of Alice's ring finger.

"Hatter..." Alice was lost for words, "This is all so quick..."

"I know it is." Hatter cut in, desperate not to hear her say no, "But I don't think that anything has ever felt more right. Stop thinking with your head and listen to your heart. I'm not Jack, I'm not your dad, and I'm never going to leave you Alice. I will always be here for you."

Alice closed her eyes for a moment and tried to think clearly. The old part of her was telling her to run, commitments only led to disappointments, if she guarded her heart she would never get hurt. But Hatter was right, although it was impulsive and not like herself, when she felt rather than thought, it felt so right.

"Yes." She smiled and Hatter's eyes lit up, "Yes, _David _Hatter. I think I will marry you." She reached out and hugged Hatter tight before kissing him passionately under the cover of the stars.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter eight

Alice held her ring up in front of her so that the light would hit off of it. She didn't know when Hatter had bought it but it was perfect. It wasn't the typical kind of ring that she saw in magazines or in movies, it was simpler and looked older with a small diamond in the centre and two small emeralds either side of it. It had silver vines twisting around the silver band and it fit her finger perfectly, as if it had been made for her.

"I'm sorry that it's not flashier. You deserve the very best ring that money could buy." Hatter said, moving Alice's hair over her shoulder and gently kissing her neck. "I mean, it's no Stone of Wonderland."

"No. It's perfect." Alice held her hand up again so that she could get a better look at it. It was so strange to see it decorating her hand, she wasn't much of a jewellery person, but she knew that wasn't what was strange here for her. The thing that was niggling away at her insides was the fact that she would be getting married now. In all her life she had never pictured herself as anyone's wife. But then how did she think she would end up? Old and alone with a million cats? Teaching martial arts until she didn't get back up again. When she was younger she had dreamed of her wedding day, just like every other little girl, but after her dad left she just found it harder to trust men completely. But it was different with Hatter; she trusted him with her life. There was no other person she would rather spend her days with.

Alice looked down over the edge; they had spent the whole night in the tree house together. The wind rushed through the leaves and once again Alice could have sworn she could hear Charlie's voice. This was getting beyond coincidence, Wonderland was not only visiting her whilst she was asleep, but more and more it was creeping into her conscience life too.

"What is it?" Hatter asked, apparently he hadn't heard anything. Alice took a deep breath, it was about time she told him everything; he was her fiancé now after all.

"Charlie." She stated, "I can hear him. Every time the wind blows through these trees, I hear him. I think I'm going mad because I can't close my eyes without being chased by the Jabberwock or standing in front of a mirror watching either the Duchess make out with you or Jack kill you, sometimes it's even both. I think I'm going insane." Alice grabbed fistfuls of her hair and tried to breathe normally.

"I don't know about the whole mirror, Duchess and Jack part." Hatter said, looking slightly embarrassed even though he knew he hadn't _actually_ done anything wrong, "But I could have sworn that I heard Charlie too, the other day. So if you're going mad, then I am too."

"You heard him? Where?" Alice asked, sitting up straighter all of a sudden.

"In your friend's antique shop, by the mirrors." Hatter stated and Alice shot up and started climbing down the tree, "Where are you going?" Hatter called after her,

"Where else? Amber's shop. What if Charlie's trying to get a message to us through one of the mirrors? It could be connected to Wonderland." Alice jumped down to the bottom and ran inside the house, a few moments later she poked her head around the back door,

"Are you coming or not?" she called up to Hatter, who simply rolled his eyes and climbed down the tree silently.

Once he got inside, he found Alice in the bedroom, trying to pull her clothes on as fast as she could. Hatter pulled on some fresh clothes with a smile.

"I can help you with that." Hatter smirked as Alice struggled in her hurry to pull her top and cardigan on at the same time.

"No thank you, Hatter. I want to put the clothes on, not take them off." She gave him a knowing smile and pulled them down,

"Are you sure? I'm almost certain that rushing off to your friend's shop could wait, oh, fifteen minutes?" Hatter raised his eyebrow suggestively and Alice walked over to him and laid a gentle kiss on his lips,

"Maybe later." She whispered against them before walking straight past him,

"Hey, that was not playing fair!" he called after her as she swished her way out into the hallway and down the stairs,

"You never said anything about playing fair." She called back to him with a smile and he ran to keep up with her, "Now, come on. We've got to get to Amber's."

"She's probably not even open yet." Hatter complained as he locked the door behind him and tried to keep Alice's pace.

"Amber always opens early. If not we'll just wait for her to open."

Luckily, Amber's Antiques was open and the door gave a little ring as Hatter and Alice walked through it.

"Good morning again you two!" Amber chirped, rushing over to look at them more closely,

"I see he popped the question then." She smiled like a proud mother as she held up Alice's hand with the ring on, "You should have seen him yesterday. So nervous about picking the right ring and if you'd say yes or not." She motioned with her head towards Hatter with a smile.

"You bought the ring from here?" Alice asked, looking down at her hand. Antique jewellery could be expensive; she wondered how Hatter could have afforded it, now that she thought about it, how did he afford it?

"Of course, my dear." Amber smiled, "I'm so glad that you said yes, you two are so perfect together."

"Thank you." Alice smiled, but couldn't help thinking how strange it was that she had suddenly changed her mind about Hatter. It wasn't like Amber, she took first impressions as everything. Something wasn't right. But she had more pressing matters to deal with first.

"Anyway, the reason that we're here is because we want to look at the mirrors again, if that's alright with you. We want to buy one."

"That's fine. Go right ahead. Just call me when you've decided which one you want." Amber scuttled back to her desk but Alice could feel her eyes boring into the back of her head as she walked to the far corner with Hatter.

"Which one?" Alice asked, craning her neck to look up at the mirrors that covered the walls around them.

"I don't know, I just heard Charlie whilst I was standing around here, and..." Hatter trailed off as something else flashed in his memory, "That one!" he pointed to the mirror that had caught his eye the other day,

"Are you sure?"

"I'm certain. I knew there was something familiar about it. It's the frame; I've seen it before, the pattern I mean. In Wonderland." He reached out and traced a hand over the ornate frame. Alice popped her head around the beam and caught Amber's eye,

"Amber, we'd like this one please."

Amber grabbed a notebook from her desk and scuttled over to the far corner. She pulled her glasses down from her head and peered up at the mirror. Something like fear caught in her eye as she looked from the mirror, to Hatter and back again.

"Are you sure you want that mirror my dear, we have plenty of other, nicer mirrors here." She motioned towards one right behind Alice, "Like this one, are you sure you don't want this one, it's got 20 percent off right now."

"No thank you Amber, we want that one." Alice persisted,

"But are you sure, Alice?" She pushed back her hair nervously and looked to Hatter for support.

"Amber! I want to buy that mirror, now will someone please tell me what is going on with you two? Yesterday, Amber, you acted like you couldn't stand Hatter and now here you are acting like there's some kind of secret between you two. Will someone please tell me what is going on?"

"Alice, Amber is from Wonderland." Hatter said gently,

"What?"

"Well, technically, I was, a long time ago. You see, I came through the Looking Glass as a teenager. I wanted to start a new life here after my parents died. I'd heard wondrous stories about this world growing up, and it seemed like the right place to try and start fresh. I snuck through one night and that mirror is the mirror that I came through. I'm not interested in going back to Wonderland, Alice, but I can't sell you that mirror. You two have your life started here, in this world. Don't throw it all away to go back there."

"Amber, there could be something really wrong in Wonderland. We need the mirror."

"Well if there is, it's none of your concern. Let them sort out their own problems and you can get on with your lives. Besides, the same mirror rarely opens up twice."

"Then there should be no harm in me owning it then, should there?" Alice crossed her arms stubbornly.

"Goodbye Alice, go plan your wedding, go live your life. In this world, where you belong." Amber shooed them towards the door and shut it behind them.

"Can you believe that?" Alice's nostrils flared, "What if something is seriously wrong in Wonderland? With Charlie? We need that mirror, Hatter."

"What do you suggest? That we break in and steal it?" Hatter smirked,

"Maybe."

"I was joking Alice." Hatter's smile vanished from his face, "We can't steal the mirror."

"Why not? You've stolen things before." Alice talked in a hushed tone,

"You're completely mental, Alice. That was all in the past. I don't steal now."

"Oh yeah, then how did you get the money to pay for the ring?" Alice had meant it as a joke, but she could hear the accusing tone in her voice. Hatter stood up straight and blinked at Alice.

"If you must know, I made a deal with Amber, to pay her in installments with the money that I was going to make from the job I got at the stables." Alice could see the hurt in his eyes,

"What? When did all of this happen? I left you alone for like a half hour yesterday. You really planned all of this out then?"

"Yes Alice, because like I told you before, I would do anything for you. I would do anything to make you happy. In fact..." he stood up and walked towards the door to Amber's Antiques, "I'm going to convince Amber to sell me that mirror, and not because I want to go back to Wonderland, because I love you Alice, although apparently, you don't think very highly of me." He swung the door open and let it clang shut noisily.

Alice waited patiently outside until five minutes turned to ten minutes turned to twenty and she gave up waiting and walked into the shop. Amber was sat behind her desk and looked up with annoyance at Alice's persistence,

"Where's Hatter?" she asked, confused and looking around the shop,

"Well he's right over there." Amber pointed towards the mirrors but did a double take when she couldn't spot him. Alice hurried over to the spot but no one was there.

"Hatter?" she called around the store but no one answered her. Alice found his hat lying on the floor a short distance away from the Wonderland mirror.

"Hatter!" she ran towards the mirror and pressed her palms against it desperately but it was already closed, she banged her fists against it, her nightmares felt real all of a sudden. "Hatter! No, please don't leave me." She pleaded with the mirror, but all it showed was her own reflection.

"Alice..." Amber began but she couldn't find the right words anymore, Alice reached into her pocket and pulled out a wad full of notes and thrust them at Amber furiously,

"I'll take the mirror now." She stated and placed Hatter's hat on top of her head, a single tear dripping from her chin. She attempted to pick it up but it proved to be too heavy for her,

"I'll help you with that." Amber picked up the bottom and helped her carry it down the street and into number 12. She stayed a while to offer her help but Alice refused it all until Amber scuttled back to her antiques.

She didn't know what else to do other than wrap herself in Hatter's old brown leather jacket and curl up in a ball on the sofa, the mirror propped up in front of the Television opposite her and her thumb fiddling with her engagement ring. She was in shock; once again Wonderland had snatched a loved one from right underneath her nose and there was nothing that she could do about it.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter nine

The sunlight was streaming through the curtains and gently woke Alice. Groaning, she reached out an arm for Hatter, it was only when it hit the hard wood floor of the living room that she remembered and pulled her knees up under her chin. _So it wasn't just a dream._

No one would disturb her. Alice wasn't much of a "Lie-in" kind of girl and it usually killed her to stay in bed and waste the day away, but today she couldn't see much to wake up for. She could lie here until the end of the week.

She fiddled with her engagement ring. _The end of the week_. What was she going to do at the end of the week? There didn't seem much point in buying the house now that Hatter wasn't here to share it with her, and she couldn't even imagine going back and facing her mother.

Alice pulled herself into a sitting position and swept her long, dark hair away from her face with a sigh. She looked out at the mirror with hate-filled eyes.

"Why?" she muttered to herself, "Why did I have to buy this stupid, good for nothing mirror?" She threw her engagement ring at it and immediately regretted it, it bounced off and disappeared somewhere else in the room.

She fell to her knees suddenly and crawled around the room trying to find it without any luck, defeated; she knelt by the mirror and laid her head against its cool surface,

"He would still be here if it weren't for me."

"You mustn't think like that my dear." Amber's voice came from the doorway,

"If it's all the same to you Amber, I'd rather be left alone today. Or didn't you notice that my fiancé got pulled through a mirror in the middle of your shop. Oh wait, you didn't, did you?" Alice snarled.

"Now dear, we don't know that he got pulled through." Amber smiled weakly and Alice's eyes flashed,

"What? Are you trying to tell me that he would just walk through? He wouldn't leave me here, someone must have pulled him through."

"All I'm saying is that I didn't hear a struggle." Amber held her hands up in defence,

"You didn't hear anything!"

"Exactly, if he had been pulled through without him wanting to go don't you think he would have yelled for help or made any kind of sound at all?"

Alice's face screwed up with confusion. She didn't want to hear this right now.

"I don't care what you think happened, Amber. Hatter's gone and I'm never going to see him again." Alice's ring finger had never felt colder as the words left her mouth. She felt naked all of a sudden without it. It had felt so strange before but now that she had lost it she felt like she had lost a part of herself, or rather, a part of him.

She began her search again for her ring. It had to be around somewhere. She put her face flush to floor and peered underneath the sofa, she found a half-eaten cookie that undoubtedly had belonged to Hatter and a handful of pennies, but no ring.

"What have you lost my dear?" Amber asked, bending down as if to look herself.

"My engagement ring." Alice stated, moving the coffee table aside so that she could look beneath it.

"Oh, my dear. I don't think that it really matters any more. Hatter's not coming back; you might as well get on with your life now."

Alice stood up suddenly and walked a little too quickly towards the middle-aged woman, who took a step back, startled. "How dare you say that? He is coming back; Hatter is coming back for me, because he loved me, and when he does, guess what? We're gonna get married. So yes, it matters, it matters to me because I love him and I'm not giving up hope yet. Now if you don't mind. Get the hell out of my house."

Amber's face turned pink with a mixture of fury and embarrassment at being talked to like that, but nevertheless, she turned and left the house. Alice let out a long sigh and looked around the little house. Hatter had wanted her to get the house, so she would, and make sure that it was ready for when he came back.

Another thing that Hatter had once said was rattling around in her head. He had said that Wonderland wasn't behind every mirror, but it could be behind any mirror. If someone had opened it and taken just Hatter, they must have had a reason to do so, and coupled with Charlie's voice calling for her, there must be something seriously wrong in Wonderland. She needed a way to get back there, and the only way that she knew of was through the Looking Glasses; wherever they may be.

Amber had also said that the same mirror rarely opens up twice, but as the one she now possessed proved, it can happen. She needed to make sure that if one of the other mirrors that were connected to the Looking Glass opened up; she was there when it did. A plan had started to form inside of her head. It started with a deposit on the house which was swiftly followed by a quick trip back home. She would find Hatter, if it was the last thing she did.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter ten

Alice let herself into the apartment and threw her overnight bag down on the side. She called out for her mom but when no one answered she realised she was alone and sank into the sofa. It seemed so strange to be here all alone. If anything it just reminded her of all that she had lost. She pulled her knees up under her chin and wrapped her arms around them as the apartment started to feel so much bigger and lonelier.

It was dark outside and so she figured that she'd start her mission to save Hatter tomorrow. She was starting to wonder where her mother was. It wasn't like her to stay out late and Alice wondered if she should have called to tell her she was coming; of course then she'd have to tell her that she was alone and she just couldn't face up to that yet.

She didn't know when she had fallen asleep but when the front door to the apartment clicked open she shot up awake scaring both her mother and her mother's guest. He was a tall man of around the same age as her mother. He had brown hair that was slightly greying around his sideburns and was cut short and stood up straight. His blue eyes crinkled beneath many laughter lines that seemed to be laughing at some kind of shared joke between Carol and him.

"Alice?" Carol asked, her eyes wide with shock, "What are you doing here? I thought you and David were staying until the weekend."

Alice looked up at her mother with pain-filled eyes, "He's gone, mom. David's gone."

"Oh, honey." Carol looked at her daughter sympathetically and rushed to her side to wrap her arms around her. Alice sank into her shoulder and couldn't stop the flood of tears from escaping. "He wasn't worth your time anyway. Don't waste tears on jerks like him."

Alice looked up at her mother, "No, it isn't like that. He didn't just leave me. He's gone, you don't understand. I have to find him." Her speech was getting faster as the thoughts went round and round inside of her head.

"Oh, Alice."

"No, mom. Don't 'Oh, Alice' me. I'm going to find him. You'll see." She pushed away from her mother who only just seemed to notice that her guest was still standing in the doorway. Alice looked from him to her dressed-up mother and connected the dots, "Were you on a date?" she asked incredulously.

"Yes. Alice, this is Robert, Rob, this is my daughter, Alice."

"Nice to meet you." Robert smiled politely but Alice ignored him,

"Can I talk to you in the kitchen for a moment please, Rob." Carol stood up and led him into the next room.

"I'm sorry." Carol said in a hushed tone, although Alice could still hear her perfectly well, "You're going to have to go. I don't know what it is with that girl but heartache seems to follow her around. First her father disappeared one day, she devoted every day trying to find him, then Jack, this lovely, sweet man that she was dating, just up and disappeared out of nowhere, and now David, the ex construction worker that I was telling you about. I don't think I can watch her go through it all again, she had this same, mad idea that she could find her father, but she never could. I need to be with her, I'm sorry." Carol explained, touching his arm gently,

"Don't worry about it. But if you need my help with anything, just give me a call, okay?" he kissed her goodbye on the cheek.

"Thank you." Carol stood and watched him leave before looking back at Alice with a forced smile, "Everything's going to be alright, honey."

"It is, because I'm going to find him mom. I know you don't believe that I will, but I do. First thing in the morning I'm going to get a few things then I'm going back."

"Back? Back where? You can't seriously be thinking about living in that house all alone?"

"It's _our_ house mom, and when I find him we're going to live in it together, and then we're going to get married." Alice turned away from her mother with the last part of her sentence,

"What?"

"Get married. He proposed to me, the day before he disappeared." Alice smiled to herself at the memory of the two of them in the tree house.

"Do you think that's why he ran away?" Carol asked sympathetically,

"No." Alice said a little more forceful than she had intended, "He didn't run away. I was standing right outside the shop. Someone took him."

"I don't understand." Carol's face screwed up with confusion, "What do you mean, someone took him? He was kidnapped? Have you called the police?"

"No, mom. I know what I'm doing. I'm going to find him."

"Honey, I can't help but feel a sense of déjà vu here, we went through all of this with your dad, remember? Haven't you learnt anything from that?"

"It's different. I know where he is. I just can't get to him, not yet anyway."

Carol looked more confused than ever and more and a little bit concerned for her daughter,

"Look, I'll explain it all to you another time, but right now, I'm going to bed, night mom." She kissed her bewildered mother on the forehead and disappeared into her old bedroom.

Hatter's clothes were still hung up in the closest, Alice half smiled and half cried at the ugly brown shirt he used to always wear. It still smelt like him. A picture of the two of them at an amusement park was sticking out of the frame of her mirror. Hatter's face always made her smile in that picture, he looked so much like a child with various foods all in his hands and a giant stuffed animal under his arm. He looked so happy, just being there with Alice. She wished that she could go back to that moment and freeze it, hold onto it forever.

She knew that it wasn't like Hatter was dead, it was worse than that. She knew he was alive; he was just in a place that Alice couldn't get to. What if she never saw him again? Or worse, what if something had happened to him once he'd gone through the Looking Glass and someone had hurt him, even killed him. What if she wasted another ten years looking for him without any luck? What if the Looking Glass never opened again? Or what if it opened when she was an old lady, wasted away and empty inside and he stepped through young and fresh as if no time at all had passed? Time went differently in Wonderland; nothing was ever as it seems there. But in a way she envied that Hatter had gotten to see it again whilst she was stuck in the real world. It was so devoid of magic and wonder that it was barely manageable. The only thing that had made it manageable before was Hatter. She had to find him, she just had to.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter eleven

Alice pulled up outside of the little house with the red door and unfastened the mirror in the backseat and carefully carried it inside the house. The restaurant owners had thought she was mad when she came in asking to buy the bathroom mirror; in fact it was probably for this reason that they had agreed so that she would get off of their property. Maybe Alice was mad; she didn't know any more, all that she knew was that she couldn't give up hope.

She carried the mirror upstairs and into the spare room where Amber's mirror sat proudly against the wall. The bathroom mirror was tall and thin; a stark comparison to its brother. They really did come in all shapes and sizes, the only thing that made them look in any way similar was the frames; both of them featured a pattern of woven leaves and vines with a crown in the centre. This would be all the help that she needed to find the other mirrors.

Alice slipped her cell phone from her pocket and checked her messages, the delivery company were on their way with the last mirror she had bought whilst back home, and this one had cost a hell of a lot more. She had to pawn most of her belongings just so that she would have the money to buy the old mirror. Luckily, it had been sitting dusty in an old warehouse and the owner had forgotten about it and so didn't put up much of a fight to sell it. Alice figured that if she had fallen through it once, she could again.

As she walked back down the stairs, something small and shiny caught her eye, glittering from beneath the living room carpet. Alice stooped low and picked it up, her engagement ring glittering merrily in the sun light. She slipped it back on her finger and smiled to herself, looking around the living room,

"Don't worry." She muttered to the house, "I won't give up looking for you."

Hatter woke up in a dark room. He could feel a bed beneath him but he couldn't see it; in fact he couldn't see anything. He reached out an arm for Alice, but when his hand fell short memories started flooding back to him and he shot up straight.

"Alice!" he called out, he felt like someone was watching him but it was so dark that he couldn't see anyone, "Who's there?" He felt around for anything that he could use to defend himself, but even the pillow seemed fixed to the bed.

"There's no use shouting, no one ever comes." A familiar if yet defeated voice sounded from the corner,

"Charlie?" Hatter tried to focus his eyes to see him, "You don't know how glad I am to hear your voice."

"I wish I could say the same, but I had rather hoped that you wouldn't have ended up here."

"Where are we?" Hatter asked,

"Why we're in Wonderland of course."

"Yes, well I got that part when I pulled through a mirror, but where are we in Wonderland? What's going on? When Alice and I left everything was going well. Jack was King, the Casino was gone, everything was getting back on track."

"That was four months ago, my boy. A lot has changed since then. King Jack and Duchess are in hiding and they imprison anyone who they think might help them or be in contact with them."

"Four months." Hatter muttered to himself, he knew that time moved differently between the worlds but he had never seen them move at the same time before, "Hang on, who are they and what do they want with Wonderland?"

"About a month after you and Alice left, everything was getting better. The birds were singing again and life was getting back on track. But then one day, out of the blue an army marched into the middle of Wonderland. Red knights, they had been living in the forests and claimed that the throne was theirs and wouldn't stop until they had it." Charlie explained,

"And so the first sign of trouble and Jack runs away?"

"No, he fought them off for as long as he could, but too many lives were sacrificed, he knew that he was worth nothing to his people dead or captured, and so fled with Duchess and a handful of the resistance. They've been hiding out somewhere, just waiting for the right moment to come back. But it's all useless as Alice will be the one to rescue Wonderland."

"Alice?" Hatter questioned, "She's not even in Wonderland. Not as far as I know at least." Doubt and panic started to claw at Hatter. What if she had followed him through the mirror and someone had captured her too? But on the other hand, what if she hadn't followed him and was left all alone, with Amber, he had to warn her about Amber.

"Alice is Wonderland's only hope." Charlie stated, "Do you think it is just a coincidence that she shares the same name as the last girl who saved Wonderland? That out of all of the people in the world to be taken, her father was, and not just to be used in the casino, but to play an important part in its tea business? Not only the fact that the resistance had been trying without any success for years to overthrow the Queen of Hearts, and it takes her, an outsider, no time at all to figure it out. Alice is our savour."

"Don't worry Charlie. Alice is stubborn. She'll figure out a way to get back. She's been hearing your voice call out to her for days now."

"She has?" Charlie's voice showed his shock, "I can't believe it actually worked, I mean, of course it worked. I am a master of the dark arts you see."

"Yeah, well, anyway. She knew that something was up. If I know Alice, she won't rest until she can figure out a way to get back here."

"I hope that you are right, my boy. I sincerely do." Charlie lay his head back against the wall,

"In the mean time, I don't suggest that we just sit around here waiting to be rescued. We need to get out of here and find Jack and the others." He stood up and cautiously felt around the room for any kind of exit.

"There's no use, I've tried it all. I believe the room is enchanted. There is no way for us to get out."

"There has to be a way." Hatter pulled back his fist and hit the wall with as much strength as he had in him. It would have knocked a concrete pillar down ordinarily, but here it just smashed into the wall and bounced back. He shook his fist in confusion, "And you say Knights did this?"

"Red Knights, yes."

"But Charlie, you're a Knight. Why did they lock you up? You're the last of the White Knights."

"That's exactly why. The Red and White Knights were at war long before the Queen of Hearts was even in the picture. They figure that as the Stone of Wonderland had belonged to Knights of old, it belongs to them and so does the whole of Wonderland. The Red King has taken power now."

"So they hid away during the Great War with the Hearts and waited until the Queen was over powered before stepping out of the shadows. They sound like cowards to me." Hatter said with disgust, sitting down on the bed, he felt a breeze blow through the top of his hair and put a hand up to his head, "Oh no."

"What is it?" Charlie sat up straight, looking around for the danger,

"I lost my hat." Hatter said sadly, "I must have left it in the other world, but..." he held his hand up and felt the breeze, "Hang on a minute, there's a breeze. There must be an air vent or something in here." Hatter climbed up on top of the bed and felt the wall blindly. At the top of the room was a vent, it was painted completely black and Hatter would have ordinarily missed it. He pulled on it but it was secured to the wall, "It's no good." He called back down to Charlie, "It's screwed to the wall."

"Would this be of any assistance?" Charlie asked. He walked forwards, bumping into a few things along the way, and blindly placed a pointed object into Hatter's hand, "It's of my own creation, you know. Handy little tool. It can open locks, acts as a screwdriver, as a backscratcher, and is very good at killing bugs, I've found. But it should do the trick."

Hatter unscrewed the screws and pulled the vent free from the wall, "How'd you get away with having that? They wouldn't even let me keep my shoelaces."

"I hid it." Charlie said proudly,

"I don't even want to know where Charlie."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter twelve

Hatter pulled himself into the vent, it was a tight fit but he had just about enough room to crawl through it. He heard a clatter behind him as Charlie attempted to get through the vent; he looked over his shoulder to see him wedged half in and half out of the rectangular gap, a pained expression on his face as he tried to pull himself in further.

"Charlie, there's no room in here for me to turn around and help you, can you get yourself through by yourself?" Hatter asked,

"Of course, I'm a Knight." He replied shortly, filling his cheeks with air as he wheezed his way into the vent, "Now forward to our victory!"

Hatter crawled forward through the vent until he came to a crossroads. Vents leading both in front of him and to his sides faced him.

"Which way now?" Hatter asked more himself than anything. Charlie closed his eyes and held his hand to his temples, "No offense or anything Charlie, but now's really not the time for your...abilities, okay? So can we just choose a direction and hope that it leads us away?"

"We should go left." Charlie stated, his expression showing his annoyance of Hatter's disbelief.

"And why's that then?"

"Because right will lead you further into the prisons and straight ahead will take you to the Red Knights quarters, so left is obviously the way to go."

"Fine, we'll go left then." Hatter sighed and turned to his left. They crawled for a while more until they came across a grate that led to a room. Hatter was just about to attempt to lift it when he heard voices coming from the room.

"So tell me more about this Alice girl." A man's voice asked and Hatter looked through the tiny gaps. The man was wearing robes made from red velvet and wore a crown around his head that was adorned with rubies and every other red jewel imaginable. He looked like a medieval King and there was no mistaking that this man was the Red King. He seemed to take the colour in his name far too literally.

"What more can I say?" A voice that made Hatter's skin crawl answered, he couldn't see her but there was no denying that it was her; the former Queen of Hearts. "She was a scruffy, insignificant little wretch that just got lucky."

"She got more than lucky the way that I hear it. She blew up your casino, got all the Oysters back to their own world and managed to dethrone you. I'd say she wasn't so insignificant. What else do you know about her?"

"I've told you everything I know." There was a flash of fear in her voice, but she quickly covered it, "She was an Oyster that my son brought in to Wonderland to help steal my throne, she stole the Stone of Wonderland and then her and her scruffy little tea friend blew up my casino. Why are you so interested in this girl?"

"That is none of your concern." He smiled a cruel smile, "I think I have all that I need from you now. You can go back to your cell." He clicked his fingers and two guards all dressed in red armour appeared from the corners of the room and grabbed one of her arms each.

"Wait! You said that if I helped you I could go."

"Why would I ever say something like that?" he rolled his eyes and motioned for his guards to take her back to her cell. Once they were gone he motioned for another guard to come towards him,

"Bring me the one called Hatter and his elderly friend. We'll find this Alice, one way or another."

Hatter ground his teeth together and moved forwards over the grate. Unfortunately it was already half open and he fell through it and landed on his back right in front of the Red King. Hatter shot a warning glance up at Charlie that told him to stay out of sight.

"Ah, Hatter. Just drop in why don't you?"

"Don't worry. I'm not staying for very long." He pulled back his fist and hit the middle aged King square in the face, making him stumble back and clutch his bloody nose.

Hatter motioned for Charlie to come down through the gap as he hit the King for a second time and waited for Charlie to slowly make his way over. Now that he was in the light, Hatter could see Charlie properly.

"Charlie, you're in your underwear!" he pointed out,

"Very observant, they took my armour from me. Dishonourable vermin. In my day they wouldn't be fit to polish a Knight's armour let alone call themselves Knights." Charlie's lip quivered in disgust at the King,

"You can tell me all about it later, but for now, let's go." Hatter hurried him through the door.

_**One month later...**_

Carol knocked on the little red door and looked the house up and down. It seemed a pleasant enough place from the outside, flowers grew up the side of the house and lent their sweet smell to the wind to gently fill the air around Carol.

Alice answered almost instantly although looked disappointed when she saw that it was only her mother. She held the door wide for her to come in and returned to whatever she was doing in the living room. Carol followed her in and gently closed the door shut behind her however Alice still jumped at the sound of it clicking back into place.

Alice sat cross legged on the sofa with the laptop on the coffee table in front of her, staring intently at the screen. Carol took a seat next to her and peered at what she was doing.

"Is that an online auction?" she asked, "Since when have you been interested in antiques?"

"Not antiques. Just mirrors. I need this mirror."

"Oh, well you should have said that you needed a mirror. I could have brought you one myself. What else doesn't this house have?" she looked around it in distaste at how bare it looked,

"It has everything mom." Alice's eyes remained glued to the Laptop screen as the last few minutes ticked down, "I just need _this_ mirror."

"What's so special about that mirror?" Carol peered at the screen once more, "So special that it has to come from Hong Kong? That's going to cost you a fortune in shipping."

"I don't care." Alice typed and clicked anxiously before hovering her hands over the keyboard for a moment, her fingers crossed, "Yes!" she screamed and made her mother jump, "I won it."

"I wouldn't exactly call it winning honey, when you have to pay so much for it to get here. How can you afford that for a mirror?" Carol looked around the house and it was only then that she noticed how empty it really was. There was no TV, no other furniture in the living room apart from the one sofa and the coffee table and when she looked through into the kitchen, all it seemed to have in it was the bare essentials. Not even a dining table or chairs.

"Did you sell all your things just to buy a mirror?" Carol asked.

"No." Alice tried not to make eye contact with her mother, "I use the money for lots of things, like rent."

"Rent? But Alice, I thought you bought this place?"

"Well I was going to, but I couldn't afford it in the end, so we came to an agreement seeing as I'd already paid a deposit, now I just rent it."

"But the furniture wasn't yours to sell."

"I know." Alice replied shortly, closing her laptop and turning to her mother, "What are you doing here mom?"

"I just thought I'd check up on you, and now I'm glad that I did. Are you alright, Alice?" Carol asked, a crease forming between her eyebrows.

"I'm fine mom, see, you can go now."

"You look thin. Are you eating?" Carol asked,

"I eat." Alice said defensively, "When I get a chance. I have a busy life now."

"You look swamped." Carol's voice was laced with sarcasm, "Do you have a job?"

"Yes. I work at Amber's Antiques. Do you remember her? She tried to help us find Daddy that one time."

"Oh yes, slightly plump woman. Wouldn't take no as an answer."

"That's her! I work for her three times a week in the store." Alice nodded,

"And what about for the rest of the week?" Carol asked,

"I work at the stables on Saturdays, and the rest of the week is my own." Alice smiled confidently,

"Stables? But Alice, I thought you hated horses and what about martial arts?" Carol couldn't hide her confusion,

"That was when I was six mom, I'm over it now, and there isn't a martial arts class here. I work out though, do some training by myself."

"Alice, you may have convinced yourself that you're coping without David, but you're not convincing me." Carol raised an eyebrow at her daughter but the rest of her features settled into a much more sympathetic look.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter thirteen

Alice closed the space between herself and the old mirror without much resistance. She was just so tired these days that she knew there was no use fighting it anymore and so greeted the mirror that should, by all accounts be sitting in her spare room, not propped against a wall in a dusty old Warehouse, like an old friend and knelt before it, awaiting what it would undoubtedly show her.

Once again the image that she had become so used to filled the surface of the mirror. Hatter sat with his back to her against the mirror. She knew what was about to happen to him and that she wouldn't like it, but she couldn't deny how happy it made her just to see him, even if it was just in her dreams.

She reached a hand out and lay it flat against the cool, hard surface of the mirror. She had done this a thousand times over but this time it felt different. When she pressed her hand harder against the mirror it almost seemed to warp under the pressure as if it were made of nothing more than cling film.

"Hatter?" Alice called out, and his head turned towards her, "Hatter!" she nearly broke down and cried.

"Alice? What's going on? What're you doing there?" his words came out in a flurry of emotion.

"Hang on." She pushed her hand harder but it came to a point where it wouldn't give any more and refused to move any further. She tried pulling it apart but it was too thick and strong, even kicking it did nothing. They were still trapped on either side of the mirror.

"I thought I could get to you." She looked at the floor sadly, "You're still so far apart."

"I'm right here Alice." He lay his hand against the mirror and Alice did the same. She wasn't sure if it was her head, but she could almost feel the warmth of his touch through the surface of the mirror. "Alice, I need you. We need you. Here in Wonderland."

"Hatter I will get to you. I promise." The world around Alice started to shatter and break off signifying the end of the dream and Alice reached out a hand towards mirror Hatter. "I will find you."

Alice woke up with a start in her bed. She pushed her dark hair away from her face and sighed sadly. She swung her legs out of bed and pulled Hatter's shirt down so that it covered the top of her thighs. She found it comforting to sleep in his shirt, when she was half asleep she could almost convince herself that he was there, lying beside her, his smell surrounding her. But she found that the more and more she did it, the less it smelt like him and the more it smelt like her.

She went about her normal morning routine and checked in on the spare room. She went about checking every mirror and then checking the security camera for any signs of movement. As usual, all was still. All that the mirrors would show her was her own reflection. A movement behind her caught her eye and she spun around ready to attack whoever it was. She met her startled mother who was eying the spare room with confused eyes.

"Alice? What is all of this?" she asked, her eyes wide as she took a step back from her daughter,

"Nothing. How did you sleep?" Alice tried to usher her out of the room but Carol was having none of it. Mirrors of every shape and size imaginable covered the walls of the room. Circular ones, square ones, rectangular ones, there were even a few that Carol found hard to even describe what kind of shape they were. The only thing that connected these mirrors together was the singular pattern around the frames, the same pattern that the internet auction mirror had.

"Alice, please. What is all of this? I know break-ups can be hard, but I think you need some help. Let me help you. My friend Louise is a therapist, let me make a call and she can help you get through this."

"No, I don't need anyone's help. I'm fine mom. Just...just leave me alone." She walked out of the room and down the stairs.

"You need to talk about it. It's no good bottling it all up." Carol followed her,

"There's nothing wrong with me, and stop telling me what I need to do. I'm not a kid anymore. I can make my own decisions."

"I'm still your mother Alice, and I'm worried about you."

Hatter woke up with a start. Charlie was sitting opposite him feeding the fire before returning to sharpening a tree branch into a spear. They had been running all day and it was only when darkness had truly fallen and they were certain that they were far enough away to make camp for the night,

"Bad dreams?" Charlie asked, the fire casting ghostly shadows on his face,

"Yes. No, I don't know." Hatter rubbed the sleep from his eyes, "I saw Alice, so yes, but I couldn't get to her, she was trapped the other side of the Looking Glass."

"Dreams are mysterious things." Charlie said, staring off into the distance before his eyes returned to Hatter with a new glint in them, "Do you know that I once dreamt that I was a turnip."

"A turnip?" Hatter wasn't sure whether to laugh or be concerned,

"Yes. I was the best turnip in the whole vegetable patch. Of course being a Knight helped immensely when the farmer's wife tried to chop my head off. The other poor turnips didn't stand a chance." His voice wavered and he bit his lip as if to stop himself from crying.

"Yeah, right...How much further is Jack's camp from here?"

"They keep moving around, but if my calculations are correct it shouldn't be much further." Charlie smiled. Hatter didn't hold much trust in Charlie's 'calculations' but he didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Hatter put out the fire before standing up and stretching.

"Hey, I just made that fire." Charlie complained,

"The smoke will lead the Red Knights to us. It's better to keep on moving, find Jack and the others and sort this mess out so that I can get on with my life." Hatter kicked dirt over the fire and Charlie scuttled to get up,

"Well someone woke up on the wrong side of the forest." Charlie grumbled as he grabbed his make shift spear and led the way forward into the forest.

They walked for another half an hour before Charlie stopped still and looked to the skies.

"What's wrong?" Hatter asked, looking around them, as far as he could tell there was nothing around for miles, they couldn't be there already.

"It should be right here." Charlie looked confused and Hatter sighed,

"Is it possible that you got it wrong?" Hatter asked, rolling his eyes.

"No. It is here."

"Well obviously it isn't." Hatter looked around,

"No, it's here." Charlie's voice sounded strained, Hatter spun around and saw him hanging upside down by his ankle.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter fourteen

Carol watched her daughter with sympathy and worry as she shuffled around the little house getting ready for work. She had seen her after her father had disappeared, Alice was a stubborn one who wasn't likely to give up easily, but somehow this time she was different. She seemed more fragile and desperate than Carol had ever seen her before. As a mother she would do anything just to see her smile again, or fight back or just show any sign of life inside of her. Instead she retreated inside of herself, barely talking to her mother and obsessed with mirrors for god only knows what reason. The only time that Carol actually heard her say anything more than a one word sentence was in her sleep, and even then Carol couldn't figure out what was going on inside of her head. Sometimes she cried in her sleep too, or reached out her arms for someone who wasn't there. Carol had taken to checking on her in the night like she used to when she was just a little girl; it broke her heart to see her baby girl in so much pain and sadness and be powerless to do anything about it. When she found that David Hatter she hoped to god that he would suffer just as much as her Alice had.

Carol walked with Alice to Amber's Antiques and stood with her arms crossed in the doorway, looking at the place sceptically. It looked pretty much the same as it had the last time she had set foot inside of it, which just showed how very bad business must be if most of the stock hadn't been shifted from last year. Amber too looked exactly the same, short, plump with greying, unruly hair that was loosely held back with a big brown clip at the nape of her neck and glasses propped at the very top of her head. Carol never could stand the woman. She was far too messy and chaotic and it was a wonder at all how she kept a business going. Alice on the other hand seemed to smile graciously at the woman as she embraced her tightly and went to hang her coat in the back room, leaving Carol and Amber alone for a few moments.

"Amber." Carol smiled politely and shortly as she gave the woman a quick nod of her head.

"Carol." Amber returned the gesture right before an awkward silence swallowed them. The only sound in the shop was the constant ticking from a Grandfather clock beside Carol. Thankfully, Alice returned quickly,

"So what exactly do you do here Alice?" Carol asked, trying and failing to keep her tone light and conversational.

"I clean down all the pieces. Bring new pieces out, arrange them and then watch the shop whilst Amber goes out to auctions in the afternoon." Alice explained, "Sometimes I also help deliver a piece to an address or go along to auctions."

Carol bit her tongue to stop her from complaining about how it wasn't a proper job and she could do so much more if she pushed herself. Instead she decided to stroll around the shop and see what it had to offer. She was peering inside of an old oak wardrobe near the back of the store when she heard Alice whispering to Amber. From what Carol could make out, she was telling her about the latest mirror she had bought but Amber wasn't very impressed by the news. Carol leaned in further to hear more just as Alice appeared around the other side of the wardrobe, causing Carol to jump. Alice had a scornful expression as she looked back in the direction of Amber,

"I'm going to get a few things from the shop round the corner. Do you want to come?" Alice asked. An hour ago Carol would have jumped at the chance of Alice asking her to go somewhere with her, but right now she had other things on her mind.

"Not right now, darling. You go on ahead. I want to look at some more things here." Carol smiled and Alice shrugged her shoulders before leaving the shop loudly and noisily.

Once she was gone, Carol casually made her way to the front of the store and faced Amber,

"Alice needs help." Carol stated, staring Amber in the eyes,

"I couldn't agree more." Amber looked down at her desk sadly, "Ever since that no good fiancé of hers disappeared she's been acting so strangely."

"I'm glad we agree on something." Carol sighed her relief, "I'm telling you, when I get my hands on him..." she trailed off and took a deep breath, "What is with the mirrors?" she asked. Amber's eyes seemed to widen slightly but she soon covered it,

"I don't know. She bought the first one from here, and ever since she's been going mad with them. I guess, I guess they give her hope. What hope, I don't know. But it's not healthy. You need to get her to get rid of them."

"She won't listen to me. In fact, she seems to have grown close to you. Couldn't you try to help?" Carol looked at Amber suspiciously,

"I've tried." Amber held her hands up in surrender, "I've tried every way that I know how, and short of coming round with a sledge hammer and smashing all the mirrors, which believe me, I've considered, there isn't much else I can do."

"Charlie!" Hatter tried to pull the old man down but his ankle was secured tightly. He hung upside down from the tree. Hatter pulled Charlie's invention that he had used to open the vents from his pocket and attempted to cut the rope that suspended him with it.

"Jack!" Hatter called as he tried to cut the rope, "Jack are you here?"

"Who wants to know?" A gruff voice asked. It seemed to be coming from the trees.

"It's Hatter and Charlie. We're looking for Jack and everyone else." Hatter felt quite stupid talking to a tree, but he didn't have much of a choice.

"There's no Jack here. Go away." A familiar voice called back, it sounded as if it were behind him. Hatter turned to the tree behind him, "Owl, is that you?"

"What? N...no... Go away." The familiar Scottish twang called back at him, "There's no use Duck, he knows it's us." She sighed.

"Just get Jack." Hatter called back. Why those two had been left in charge of protecting the people he didn't know. It was bad enough when they were hiding in the Great Library, but in trees? They were hopeless.

A few moments later Jack appeared at the top of the tree, and climbed down to meet them, followed by Duchess. Both looked worse for wear, it grubby and ripped clothes and like they hadn't washed in a year. Jack smiled and embraced Hatter tightly, who was more than a little bit shocked at this display of affection from someone who couldn't stand him just four months ago.

"Hatter. You don't know how glad I am to see you. Where's Alice?" Jack looked around as if she were likely to jump out from behind a tree,

"I...I don't know." Hatter stuttered, "I think, and I hope that she's back in her own world."

"But Wonderland needs her." Duchess almost snarled, "How could she just abandon us like that?"

"She didn't abandon you. She didn't know. Neither of us did. I got pushed through a mirror and ended up here only to be greeted by some not so friendly knights who shoved me in a dark cell with Charlie."

"How did you escape?" Jack asked,

"Through the vents." Hatter stated, "I have Charlie to thank for it actually." Hatter gestured his head to him.

"Yes, and I'd be happy to tell you the full story if one of you would get me down from here!" Charlie spat as he spun slightly, still suspended by his ankle.

"Oh, sorry about that." Jack smiled and produced a dagger from his pocket which he used to cut the rope free. "Not many people come into this part of the forest, but you can't be too careful."

"Yeah, why the trees?" Hatter asked, looking up at the towering trees above him.

"It's off the ground so we're safe from the Jabberwock and any Knights that happen to ride through. We're high up so we have a vantage point and can see people coming, but they don't see us. We tried to use the Great Library for a while, but someone betrayed us and the whole place was burnt down. This is the safest place for us. We even have a guard dog of sorts." Jack smiled,

"Speaking of, he would have heard you shouting. We should get up before he comes back." Duchess started climbing the nearest tree. For such a pampered girl she sure knew how to climb. Jack climbed up next followed slowly by Charlie and Hatter behind him. Once they got to the top the familiar screech of the Jabberwock filled the air. Hatter's senses seemed to overtake him, the smells and the sounds. It was all so Wonderland.

Hatter turned to see how the resistance had been living. Tree houses filled every tree, hidden in amongst the great masses of leaves and branches. They were small enough not be noticed easily from the ground and well hidden with camouflage, but big enough to house a few people per tree. Some even had walk ways between them made from branches secured together. It was way more advanced than Hatter's little tree platform back home.

Hatter ran his hand up on the walls of the tree house in front of him jealously. When he got back he was going to make that tree house in the garden the best tree house in the world. He didn't care how long it took. If they could do it here in Wonderland with hardly any resources, he could do it back in Alice's world.

"Welcome to the resistance." Jack smiled, breaking through Hatter's thoughts, "Now, I want to know everything."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter fifteen

Hatter leaned back in the little wooden chair as he answered all of Jack and Duchess's questions. The more they wanted to know about Alice the more his concerns started to grow for her. He knew that she was more than capable of looking after herself, in fact, she was probably better at it than he was; she was a black belt after all. But despite it all he couldn't help worrying about her. He loved her. He would gladly lay down his life for hers, and from the sounds of it; hers was in danger. She was the only person that could save Wonderland, and so was therefore the Red Knight's biggest threat. They wanted her dead, not just imprisoned.

"Hopefully Alice is safe and sound on the other side of the Looking Glass." Hatter stated, crossing his arms defensively, he knew that the comment wouldn't stand well with the others.

"Hatter, Alice is the only hope that Wonderland has of survival." Jack tried to explain again, "We need her here."

"They want her dead Jack, you said so yourself. Not imprisoned, not interrogated. Dead. The farther away from all of this that she is the better, okay?" Hatter was growing ever more impatient with the former King.

"We don't need her Jack. She's not even a part of this world, it is ours and so therefore we must be the ones to protect it." Duchess almost purred down Jack's ear.

"We tried darling, but the very reason that we're from this world is our disadvantage. There's a reason why Alice was drawn to this place, there's a reason why it's been interwoven with her life for so long. She belongs here and she is the only one that can save us." Jack said patiently.

"The words of an old crone. How do we know that we can trust her?" Duchess whispered loudly and viciously down Jack's ear.

"I'll have you know that the Seer is anything but an 'old crone' as you so rudely put it, but in fact a respectable woman with genuine physic abilities and a connection to the spirit world." Charlie grew red in the face,

"Alice will come." Jack stated,

"I hope that she doesn't." Hatter stated, staring out over the trees, "I just hope that she's safe somewhere and has moved on. That she's just forgotten all about me and this place and is living a happy, normal life. Free from Wonderland." Hatter sighed sadly. As much as he loved Alice and wanted her to be safe and happy, a more selfish part of him wished that she would find a way through the Looking Glass and save Wonderland. If not for anything else but to find him again. He missed her so much that he couldn't believe it. He had never felt like this about anyone else before. He was a coward. He ran away from his problems, he played both sides of the court to try and keep everyone happy and not be caught on the wrong side, but all that was behind him now. That Hatter would never _miss_ a girl like the way he missed Alice. That Hatter would never even imagine of settling down with a girl, let alone an Oyster girl in her world. He wasn't even sure if the old Hatter would even like the man that he had become, but then again, did he really like the old Hatter that much?

Alice took out all of her aggression on the punching bag. It wasn't her usual sport of choice, but at the moment she needed to do something to relieve all of the anger that she was building up. She had to hit the punching bag as to stop herself breaking down and smashing all of the stupid, expensive mirrors that never opened, no matter how many times she checked them. It had gotten to the point where every time that she heard a noise she would immediately jump up to check on them. Sometimes she was even sure that her mind merely invented the sounds just to torture her further.

She got into a steady rhythm with the punching bag, muttering to herself the real reasons why she was angry. It was the same ones repeated over and over.

"Why-did you-have to-go-through-that-stupid-mirror!" She hit and kicked the bag in between the words. She was so involved that she didn't notice Carol walk over and stand in the doorway, watching her, "Why-did-you-go?" She couldn't keep the emotion from creeping into her voice, "Why do-they-all-go Alice?" her fists dropped as she stared at the punching bag blankly, "What's wrong with me? Why am I always alone?"

"Oh sweetheart." Carol gasped sadly, her hand reaching up to her mouth. Alice jumped and then blushed slightly. She didn't like admitting her feelings out loud, she felt embarrassed for not keeping her thoughts in her head and didn't want her mother's pity.

"I'm fine mom." Alice muttered, returning her focus to the punching bag, but her eyes glittered with tears that were on the verge of spilling. She sniffed them back furiously and hit the bag again, "You know, I'll get through it. I'm-tough. I'm not-some-pathetic little-girl that'll-break, you know? I'm tough-I'm-a-black belt for-crying out loud! I just need to toughen up." She sighed deeply.

"As happy as I am that you're finally opening up and that you're not acting like a Zombie anymore. But Sweetie, you don't have to put on a brave face to the world. It's ok not to be tough. It's ok to ask for help every once in a while. The one's that love you are worried about you darling. Let us help you."

"Thanks mom, but no thanks. Okay, like I said, I'm fine. I can take care of myself. You know, I always have. If you want something bad enough you have to get up and go get it yourself. That's what you always taught me."

"Yes, honey, but not like this. It's not healthy." The crease of concern between Carol's eyebrows grew deeper.

"Although, I don't know why I'm listening to you." Alice turned her back on her mother and hit the punching bag once more, "You also told me that just because Daddy left, that they all wouldn't. But for some reason men just seem to keep on running."

"There's nothing wrong with you Alice. You are a beautiful, feisty young woman. Any man would be lucky to have you. In fact, you remember my friend Catherine, right? Well her son's about your age. He's kind, sweet, honest. A real good guy. I think you two would be perfect together. I'll give her a call." She looked up at Alice's glare, "Come on, Alice. You need to get back in the game, move on."

"I don't need you to set me up, okay, mom. I have a guy, a really great guy actually. And he's coming back. He's my fiancé and I love him. I'll find him."

"How exactly?" Carol was starting to lose her patience with her daughter, "By moping around the house? By collecting mirrors? I'm sorry Alice, but at least with Daddy I could see your process, there was logic. But here, I can't see it. I don't understand."

"And you never will."

* * *

><p><strong>Sorry it's been so long since my last update, exams had gotten in the way. Thank you to everyone though that has been reading and reviewing so far. It means so much to me, and I will try to update more frequently from now on. :)<strong>


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter sixteen

Hatter lay on his back on the flat roof platform of one of the resistance's tree houses and stared up at the stars. They always were so much more beautiful in Wonderland. In Alice's world there would be nights when you couldn't even see the stars, even when the skies were clear, but in Wonderland the stars always shined their brightest. Nothing could stop them here. He envied them in a way.

Footsteps caught his attention on the platform below. He didn't even have to look up to know who they belonged to. There was only one person in the resistance who would wear heels in a tree house; Duchess. She was wearing a trench coat like a spy from one of the old movies that Alice had made him sit through and was looking around herself cautiously. She looked like a woman that didn't want to be followed.

Silently, Hatter dropped down from the roof and landed right in front of her, causing her to stagger backwards slightly in surprise.

"Where are you going?" he asked, eyeing her up suspiciously. The whole time that he had been here he hadn't seen her once leave Jack's side. His curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"Just out for a bit of air." She raised her chin to the sky defensively and inhaled the night's air deeply.

"Yeah. I don't buy it. Tell me what you're up to really. Duchess, I haven't known you for very long but you're about as subtle as a shot gun."

"Fine." She rolled her eyes and pulled Hatter into the shadows, "I'm fed up of sitting around doing nothing waiting for little miss perfect." She snapped,

"Hey, that's my fiancé you're talking about."

"Fine, fine, whatever. But the point is. I can't just sit around here doing nothing waiting for her to turn up and save us all. This is my kingdom too, and I'm not going to just sit around whilst my people are either imprisoned or sent into hiding. Now are you going to help me or not?"

"Why don't you get Jack or the rest to help you? You're just one woman, you can't take them down by yourself." Hatter saw something dangerous flash in Duchess's eyes and he wished that he could take back his words. She leaned towards him in an intimidating fashion.

"Just one woman?" she snarled, "Alice is just one woman, yet everyone around here is willing to put all of their faith into her saving us. If she can do it, then why can't I? What makes her so special, really? I was born here, this is my world; not Alice's."

"There's more to Alice then you think."

"Of course you're going to say that! You love her. So does everyone else, so does Jack." She looked to the ground sadly, "He's sitting up here waiting on the idle belief that she is just going to pop right back through the Looking Glass and save us all like last time. But she's not coming."

"You want to prove to Jack that you can do it, don't you?" Hatter guessed, "You want to show him that you're better than Alice."

"So what if I do?" Duchess looked away, "But that's beside the point. I'm doing this with or without your help Hatter. Now either you come with me and help, or stay here and pretend that you never saw me tonight. The choice is yours."

Hatter looked back towards Jack's tree house, if it were Alice heading off on her own, he would want someone to go with her to make sure that she was safe if he couldn't go. Besides, he owed Jack, without him Alice would never have come to Wonderland and he would never have met her. Duchess was right; they couldn't just sit around and wait for a miracle to happen. They needed to get out and make it happen themselves.

"So what's the plan?" Hatter asked and followed Duchess down the trunk of the tree.

Alice arrived at Amber's Antiques promptly, her mother following her as usual. Alice had grown not to care anymore that her mother had become her shadow, following her around with sad eyes and the constant fear that Alice might break at any moment. In fact sometimes she even forgot that she was there. She was beyond caring anymore. Nothing really mattered to her these days apart from the mirrors.

Ever since Alice had taken her anger out on the punching bag and actively sought to take control of her life, Carol had seen changes in Alice. Glimpses of her old daughter back. Her eyes would still glaze over at times, when she saw something that reminded her of David, but she was stronger because of it. Alice wasn't going to become one of those needy girls that can't function without a man and just crumbled. As much as she wanted to curl up in a ball and forget the world she wasn't going to just lie down and take it. Something was wrong in Wonderland and she was going to get there. She owed it to Hatter not to give up and to just keep fighting.

"Oh Alice, dear. Just in time. I just got a shipment of items from the auction house. Would you be a dear and catalogue it all for me?" Amber smiled politely at Alice and Carol.

"Sure." Alice smiled and made her way to the back room and to the boxes.

"So what have you bought now?" Carol asked Amber, trying to make polite conversation.

"Oh I don't know. It was a mixed lot from an old abandoned house. Mixed boxes of items are sold off and you don't know what you're getting. It could be anything from clothes to cutlery to small furniture."

"And you just bought it without seeing what was inside?" Carol asked incredulously.

"But that's the fun of it, Carol. You don't know what could be waiting inside of the box." Amber's eyes seemed to glitter with excitement, "come see for yourself." Amber ushered Carol into the backroom where the mysterious boxes lay unopened. Alice appeared with her laptop, ready to catalogue the items.

"Everything alright?" Alice asked, not used to having an audience when performing this routine task,

"Yes, yes my dear. I'm just curious as to what treasures lie within the box this time." Amber smiled and Alice cut the tape from the box. It was a largish cardboard box that was a fair enough size to fit some interesting items inside of. Alice just hoped that it was interesting this time, and not a repeat of the moth-eaten clothes incident.

Alice carefully pulled open the box and started taking objects out. A beautiful silk scarf lay at the top of the box which caused Amber to gasp and grin broadly. What followed it were odd pieces of silverware, a beautiful antique frame, what appeared to be a wedding veil and bouquet, a vase, an old coat, two candlesticks and at the very bottom of the box sat a hand mirror. The type that looked like it should have belonged with a set of a brush and comb. Alice took it out to inspect it further. Her pale face reflected back at her. She hadn't realised how bad she looked these days. It was ironic seeing as how many mirrors she had in her house, the last time that she actually looked at herself in one. Well that was one of the first things that was going to change. No more acting like a zombie.

Alice flipped the mirror over to admire the engraved pattern. She gasped and ran her hand across the familiar pattern. The pattern that graced each and every mirror in her spare room. This was one of the Wonderland mirrors. But she had never seen one so small, it would be impossible to actually travel through this mirror, so it must have served another purpose. What though, she didn't have a clue. Carol and Amber's faces fell when they saw what had taken Alice's attention, although both for very different reasons.

"You hardly need another mirror, Alice." Her mother stated impatiently.

"How much do you want for it Amber?" Alice looked up at her with a new gleam in her eyes.

"I don't know Alice." Amber couldn't take her eyes off of the mirror.

"Come on Amber. It's too small to do any damage; I have much bigger ones than this at home. It's not like I'm about to jump through it." Alice scoffed, forgetting momentarily that her mother was still in the room,

"What are you talking about?" Carol asked in confusion,

"Nothing mother." Alice said impatiently and turned to Amber again, "Come on, I'll pay you much more than it's worth. It won't do any harm. I have to find him Amber. This could be a way, I've never seen one like this before."

"Alice?" Carol asked,

"Not now mom." Alice didn't take her eyes off of Amber as she spoke,

"No. Alice, I'm your mother and I'm fed up of you leaving me out of the loop all of the time. Now I'm fed up of all of this foolish behaviour. You will tell me what is going on with all of these mirrors right now, young lady!"

Alice sighed and looked at Amber for reassurance, she nodded in a silent agreement.

"Mom, do you remember when daddy disappeared?"

"Alice, that was different then, David didn't..." Carol began but Alice cut her off,

"It's exactly the same mom. Daddy didn't disappear, he was taken. To Wonderland."

"Wonderland?" Carol was looking at her daughter like she had just escaped from the insane asylum.

"Yes, Wonderland. He was taken there, Jack was from there, and so is David, although, I know him as Hatter. I followed the White Rabbit through the Looking Glass and ended up inside of the scarab, I used my hair pin to break free and ended up falling into the water." Alice could see that her mother thought she was mad, "Anyway, long story short, I found Hatter, he helped me try to find Jack, I thought he'd been kidnapped and taken to the Hearts Casino, but I ended up falling for him along the way." Alice smiled to herself at the memory, "We got chased by a Jabberwock, a psychopath with a rabbit head and countless other suits from the Queen of Hearts, we met Charlie, who was the White Knight, he was a bit on the crazy side, but loveable. Anyway, I'm rambling again, Daddy got shot, he died because he tried to save me, Hatter shot the guy who killed him though. I helped save Wonderland, Jack's the king, at least he was when I left. Those mirrors that I have in my spare room, they all lead to Wonderland, so does this one, and that's why I keep them, Hatter was pulled through the one that was in this shop and I'm just collecting as many as I can on the off chance that one of them will open up again and I'll be able to find my way back home."

Carol looked at her daughter with wide eyes, she had finally snapped, she was insane. She looked over at Amber and was surprised to see her understanding eyes looking at Alice.

"You're not seriously buying this are you?" Carol asked in bewilderment,

"Of course I am. It's real Carol. I'm from Wonderland too."

"Oh god, not you too. You're the reason why she's gone so loopy aren't you? You've been filling my fragile little girl's head with all these fanciful ideas. No wonder she's finally lost it. This is the final straw Alice, you're moving back home with me."

"No, no mom. I knew you wouldn't understand. It's the truth, I'm not going anywhere with you, this is my home." Alice got up from the ground, her eyebrows furrowing in a mixture of disappointment and anger. "And I'm not crazy." She added before storming out of the shop.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter seventeen

"I think you're mad." Hatter stated, shoving his hands into his pockets as he followed Duchess across the span of the forest.

"You said." Duchess snarled in annoyance, "Three times already."

"Can I just ask, what exactly is your plan?" Hatter's lips formed into a line as he raised an eyebrow at Duchess, "Do you think that you can just march up to the Red King and he just back down and give you your kingdom back? It doesn't work like that Duchess; he'd kill you as soon as he saw you."

"I don't care what we do, as long as we do something."

"Well we've been walking for a while now, we might as well stop and rest for a bit." Hatter suggested.

"Can't rest, got to keep moving." Duchess wobbled dangerously on her heels as she stepped over a fallen tree.

"As much as you might hate me for saying this, but you're more like Alice then you think." Hatter smiled and Duchess glared at him, "She has the same 'can't give up' attitude, you're independent and fiery like she is too." Hatter smiled to himself as he stared out into the distance,

"You really love her don't you?" Duchess carefully perched on the fallen tree,

"More than anything in the world. I asked her to marry me, all I ever wanted was to spend the rest of my life with her." Hatter's smile was hopeful as his head filled with her image.

"I wish someone would love me like that." Duchess looked to the ground and pretended to study her heel.

"You have Jack." Hatter pointed out,

"It's not the same, it's not like what you and Alice have. I love him, don't get me wrong, of course I do, but sometimes I feel like he doesn't feel the same way. He doesn't trust me."

"Well you did work for his mother." Hatter pointed out but backed down after the death glare Duchess shot at him, "But trust takes time to rebuild. And as for the love thing, I think you're wrong. I saw the way he looked at you."

"Well then you obviously haven't seen the way that he looks at Alice." Duchess's eyes remained glued to her shoe, "Do you know that after I got him out of the Hearts Casino, practically declared my love for him and he then proposed to Alice at the Looking Glass, asked her to be his Queen."

Hatter's face contorted, he didn't know this; he wondered why Alice had never mentioned it before. "Well that was in the past. He's grown to love you now."

"As second best, sure." Duchess stood up and dusted herself down, "Anyway, we've got to keep on moving. If we go at this pace either we'll be killed by a Jabberwock or Jack will catch up and try to stop us, in which case I will kill you."

"So basically, I keep moving or I die, right?" Hatter verified,

"Basically, yes." Duchess replied with a feline smile.

"What have you done to my daughter?" Carol rounded on Amber now that they were alone in the back room.

"What have I done?" Amber raised her eyebrows at Carol, "I think you should look at what you've done, Carol. Here's a tip, it's not a good idea to tell your daughter that you think she's crazy."

"Maybe my choice of words wasn't as good as it could have been, but what else am I supposed to think? She was fragile, searching for a reason to why all of these men kept leaving her life and so you took advantage of that. I don't know what sick pleasure you're getting out of it, but you've filled her head with all of these silly Wonderland ideas, and Alice being who she is and constantly searching for an answer, accepted it. She's not in the right frame of mind. You should be locked up somewhere." Carol looked at the woman with pure disgust and hatred.

"If you don't believe in Wonderland, fine, I'm not going to force it upon you. Think the worst of me if you will, fine, I don't care what you think, I know the truth. But Alice, your little girl. She needs your support right now. She can't go back to Wonderland. It's not safe for her there right now, you have to listen to me Carol. If one of the mirrors should open you have to make sure that she doesn't go through."

Carol rolled her eyes at the woman and the nonsense that she was spewing, but then she saw true concern for Alice rooted in her eyes. Even if she was stark raving mad, she cared for her, it was important to her that Alice was safe, and so in that moment Carol softened slightly to the woman.

"I'll do my best." Carol nodded.

Sunlight and birdsong awoke most of the resistance camp. It had become almost impossible to sleep in since they moved to the tree houses as the sunlight reached them a lot faster and the singing birds were a lot closer than they were used to as well. There was also the added pressure of their camp being found out, so not many slept all that well. Jack awoke and reached an arm out for where Duchess should have been, only his hand found nothing. Wiping the sleep from his eyes, he sat up and studied the room closer, she was nowhere in sight.

Panic didn't start to set in for Jack until a few moments later. He checked with every other person of the resistance, but not once of them had seen Duchess, and better yet, Hatter had gone missing too.

"Who was on night guard last night?" Jack asked his men,

"It was me, sir." A timid Owl called out, clutching her shotgun tentatively and looking down sadly through her thick glasses.

"Did you see anything?" Jack demanded; his face growing evermore desperate.

"No, I didn't your highness." Owl tried not to make eye contact,

"And you were on guard the whole night were you?" he asked to which Owl nodded mutely, "And you didn't leave your post at all?"

"No...well, I err, might have left for a moment, to get more wool for the scarf that I'm knitting, you see it's a gift for Duck, for his birthday, and I ran out of orange wool, so I went back to my cabin to get some, but I was only gone for two, three minutes at most. Everything looked exactly the same though when I got back."

"Owl." Jack pinched the bridge of his nose in annoyance, "You're not supposed to be knitting at all when on guard duty, you're supposed to be keeping an eye out for our enemies, to keep our people safe. And now someone's kidnapped Duchess and Hatter."

"If I may, my good fellow." Charlie interjected, appearing behind Jack, "I have had chance to study the tracks extensively, and there only appears to be too sets of tracks, one belonging to your Duchess, and the other to my good friend, Hatter. I don't think they were kidnapped."

"What are you trying to say?" Jack's eyebrows furrowed,

"I'm saying that I think they left of their own free accord. At least that's what I can conclude from the tracks, and I have been tracking in woods my entire life."

"But why would they leave in the middle of the night like that? Together as well, they're not exactly best friends those two, they're more likely to kill each other than anything. It just doesn't make much sense."

"I also dabble in the black arts, as I think I mentioned to you before, my liege, and I think if I work together with the Seer, we can come up with an answer to your questions." Charlie suggested,

"Very well. Do what you must." Jack replied whilst looking out over the trees. He just didn't understand Duchess sometimes, she was so hard to read and even harder to really get to know. She shut herself off from the world, but more importantly to him. He never knew what she was thinking; he'd never met a girl like her.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter eighteen

Charlie hovered cautiously by the heavy curtain that cut off the entrance to the Seer's hut. He wasn't sure what the correct way of addressing his presence at a Lady's chambers was, so reasoned by clearing his throat loudly and knocking on the wooden door frame.

"M'lady? It is I, Sir Charles Eustace Fotheringay Le Malvoy the Third. May I come in?" The curtain was pulled back from within to reveal an elderly woman, only a few years younger than Charlie himself, wearing a long, purple velvet dress and a large cloak of a paler pink colour. The hood of which was pulled up, shadowing her face, yet from beneath it Charlie could see a pair of sapphire eyes and skin that told a thousand tales, her silver hair fell forward in thick, luscious wisps and she looked up at the White Knight with great curiosity.

"How may I be of service to you?" She asked and Charlie fumbled with his words,

"Well, you see m'lady... I wouldn't normally wish to bother you, but you see two of our men...ah well, one was a man, the other, very much a woman...the point is, they're missing, and I hoped that together we might be able to find out the reason as to why...to make sure that they're safe...but now that I have conversed my words aloud, I can see how foolish they must seem...you have much better uses of your time...sorry to have bothered you." Charlie spun on his heel but the Seer caught him by his shoulder,

"Not so quick, brave knight. I would be happy to assist you." She smiled and Charlie's grin lit up his face,

"Ah, I see, thank you m'lady."

The Seer led Charlie to the edge of the forest and to a river where she gracefully deposited herself on the back right beside the water. Charlie looked around the forest cautiously.

"My Lady, not that I disagree with your judgement, but do you think that it's safe to be out in the open like this?"

"There is no need for worry, brave knight. The trees are my friends. They shelter and protect us from prying eyes. We are very safe here."

"Well if you are sure." Charlie replied, yet looked around at the trees as if a Red Knight might jump out at any moment. He was getting old now, what chance would he serve of protecting the Seer against a young knight?

"Please, sit." The Seer smiled wryly to herself as she gestured to the ground in front of her. Charlie slowly, and creakily, sat down on the cold, wet pebbled bank. The Seer reached out and filled her hands with water from the river.

"Put your hands out." Charlie obeyed and the Seer let the water flow from her hands and into his. Once his hands were full, she placed her hands on top of his and looked deep into the tiny pool of water. Charlie tried to concentrate on the water but he couldn't help himself from blushing slightly at her touch. When was the last time that the soft hands of a woman had touched his own? He wasn't sure if they had ever, at least non as powerful and beautiful as the Seer's hands.

"Keep your thoughts on the water, concentrate on your missing friends." The Seer stated, a small smile playing around her lips. Charlie wondered to himself if she could read thoughts amongst her many powers, which caused him to blush further. Nevertheless, he did as he was told and tried to concentrate on Hatter and Duchess. Before long the little pool of water in his hands started to swirl with light and colour.

"You have the gift." The Seer smiled at Charlie, "I could sense it as soon as we met, but this is proof of it."

"I dabble in the dark arts." Charlie said modestly, "Soothsaying, the such. But my gifts are humble compared to yours."

"A gift is a gift. It is the way in which it is used that makes the measure of the person, not how many gifts they might possess." Charlie spent a few moments lost inside of the Seer's powerful blue eyes before Jack's loud cough broke through his concentration and brought him back to his surroundings.

"Charlie. Seer." Jack seemed bemused as he approached the pair, "What have you found out?"

Charlie looked down at his hands as the images of Hatter and Duchess passed before his eyes.

"It seems that they left of their own accord, my lord." The Seer stated, her eyes had turned cloudy as she stared into the water.

"Are you sure? Do you know what was the reason of their departure?" Jack asked,

"If I may?" Charlie asked the Seer, to which she nodded in encouragement, "I believe that Duchess was unhappy with waiting for Alice. She had voiced her disagreement many times."

"I had never heard her do so." Jack's brow furrowed with confusion,

"Perhaps you did, my lord, but you never truly listened." The Seer suggested, her eyes had returned to their normal dazzling blue.

"I don't understand." Jack stared at the flowing river, his mind was elsewhere.

"From what I saw, your Duchess feels that she is second in your eyes." The Seer told Jack. He looked out at the trees on the other side of the river. Had he really paid that little attention to her?

II.

Alice placed the hand mirror beside her bed before climbing beneath her sheets and clicking her lamp off. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt so much hope. This mirror was different to any other mirror she had come across before, it had to be a sign. She pushed back all thoughts of her conversation with her mother. She didn't care what she thought anymore. She wasn't a child, she couldn't be bossed around. This was her life and she would live it the way that she wanted to. She wasn't mad, she was hopeful. Hope was all that she had left anymore and she wasn't about to just let her mother take that away from her.

She heard her front door open and then click closed, followed by the cautious footsteps of her mother. Alice stayed where she was and stared up and the ceiling absentmindedly whilst her mother climbed the stairs and carefully peered around Alice's bedroom door.

"Alright sweetheart?" Carol asked. Lately she had adopted that tone that is usually reserved for the mentally ill when she talked to Alice.

"I'm fine. I would be better, if everyone just let me get on with my life."

"But that's what I'm trying to do, Alice. I'm trying to help you." Carol said,

"Well then help. Believe me, or at least believe in Wonderland. Either way, don't call me crazy."

"That was a slip of the tongue, sweetheart. I don't think that you're crazy. I think that you are a wonderful person whom bad things have happened to."

"But you think that I made up Wonderland?" Alice asked,

"I don't know what to think anymore." Carol admitted,

"Fine. Believe what you want to. Can I sleep now then?" she rolled over onto her side. Carol hovered in the doorway a few moments longer before sighing and making her way back down stairs to the sofa where she had been living the past month or so. Once she was gone, Alice picked up the hand mirror to admire it once more. It was beautiful.

"Hello?" A confused voice asked and Alice threw the mirror onto her bed suddenly. The voice had come from the mirror itself. "Who's there? I just saw you." It was a woman's voice. Alice crawled to the foot of her bed and cautiously picked up the mirror again and turned it to face her. There was a woman's face reflected back at her, only she was older. At first Alice touched her own face, just to check that it wasn't herself and she looked worse than she thought she did. But when her reflection didn't copy her she realised that it was someone else. She had thick wisps of silver hair and soft wrinkles around her eyes and mouth. She appeared to be concentrating hard on Alice's image as if she couldn't quite believe that she was there.

"Alice, is that you?" she asked,

"Do I know you?" Alice asked in confusion,

"No, my child, but I know you. How is it that we are communicating?"

"You're in my mirror." Alice said plainly, "Are you from Wonderland?" Her heart leaped from within her chest.

"Aye, I am. My name is Lavinia Grey and I am a Seer. I have watched over you your entire life, although I have never conversed with you whilst you were awake and I asleep before, this is most strange." She looked around the edges of the mirror as if trying to see what surrounded her.

"You're asleep? I don't understand what's going on, but anyway. How do I get back? Is Hatter okay? What's going on Wonderland?"

"Patience, my child. All of your questions will be answered in time. But I am afraid you are gravely needed in Wonderland."

"How do I get through? All of the Looking Glasses are closed."

"When the time is right, you will know what to do." Her image started to shimmer and fade,

"Wait! No, I don't understand! Don't go yet!" Alice was nearly screaming at the mirror. Carol came running up the stairs to see her daughter clutching the mirror desperately whilst a tear ran down her cheek.

"Were you talking to the mirror?" Carol asked, her eyes wide. This was the final straw for Carol. She couldn't just stand by and watch her daughter grow ever more insane by the hour. She had to do something; Alice would thank her for it later.


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter nineteen

"We have to keep moving." Duchess urged Hatter, impatience tainting her voice.

"No, we need to rest, gather our strengths. There's no point getting there just to pass out at the King's feet from exhaustion! It won't kill you to rest for a bit." Hatter took a seat on a fallen tree and watched Duchess pace back and forth with annoyance. "Can't you stay still for two minutes? How can you even walk in those shoes?"

Duchess looked down at her strappy gold heels as if only just remembering that she was wearing them, "It takes a lot of practise." She almost hissed, "I've been walking in heels for nearly my whole life, I could walk over anything without breaking my step."

"Well we'd be a lot quicker if you took them off." Duchess glared at Hatter,

"I'd rather walk on my hands then go barefoot in such a dirty place." She wrinkled her nose in disgust.

"You could lie down and crawl there on your belly for all I care, just as long as we stop every so often to rest." Hatter replied and Duchess reluctantly took a seat beside him on the fallen tree. "Got a plan yet?" he asked after taking as much awkward silence as he could manage.

"Nope, you?"

"Try not to get killed."

"Sounds like a good plan." Duchess smiled,

"Oh my god, was that a smile? And no puppies died or anything." Duchess tried to shoot an evil look at Hatter but couldn't stop herself from smiling half way through it. "Smiling suits you, you should do it more."

"What do I have to smile about? I'm the spare chess piece; wheeled out when needed then tossed away again once I've fulfilled my purpose."

"I don't think that's true." Hatter replied, "I bet Jack's back there now going mad looking for you."

"Yeah right, I bet he hasn't even noticed that I'm missing yet."

II.

Jack was sat on the edge of his bed looking down at his hands sadly. He was ashamed of himself; he had been so consumed in all of his plans and work that he had neglected his Queen. He had made her feel so insignificant that she left him in the middle of the night, she felt that she had to take matters into her own hands. What kind of a King did that make him? His thoughts were interrupted by a knock at his door. Charlie and the Seer stood in its frame.

"Sire, I have seen Alice." The Seer exclaimed, a smile lighting up her face. Jack shot up into a standing position,

"Where? Is she in Wonderland?"

"No, my lord, I saw her in a dream. It was most unusual actually. It is usually I that delve into the sleeping minds of others, not the other way around, she must be very powerful." The Seer told Jack,

"No, Alice has no magic. She's just an Oyster." Jack stated.

"Alice is anything but an Oyster." Charlie scowled at Jack,

"Of course, I didn't mean any offense by it. I just meant that she is not of this world. She has no magic." Jack explained,

"There is more to young Alice then you know." The Seer raised an eyebrow at Jack and smiled wistfully to herself.

"What do you mean?" Jack asked but Charlie cut him off.

"There's time for that later. Right now though, we at least know that we have a connection to Alice."

"You're right. So how do we get her through?" Jack asked,

"Not just yet, have patience my King. The time is not right." The Seer told them, her eyes had gone milky once more as she stared at them,

"What do you see?" Jack asked impatiently,

"Alice will come when the time is right and not a second before. She must first face some challenges of her own."

"Well when will the time be right?" Jack asked, pacing nervously,

"Patience, my good king, is a lesson that you must first learn." She turned on her heel and left Jack alone with his thoughts, Charlie trailed after her.

"When will the time be right?" Charlie muttered to the Seer out of curiosity,

"You'll see."

III.

Alice awoke suddenly when she heard her front door click closed and four sets of footsteps enter her house. Fully alert for the first time in she didn't even know when, she got to her feet and pulled her dressing gown around herself and shoved her feet into her boots in case she needed to make a quick getaway. She had made a connection to Wonderland last night, what if this was people trying to stop her from getting there? What if they wanted her mirrors? She would defend them with her life. She opened her door slowly and silently, cringing when it made the tiniest of creaks and peering around it looking for her attackers. Two burly men were making their way up the stairs followed by two women. Alice readied herself.

"Alice, dear, are you up yet?" it was her mother's voice. That was the last straw, they weren't about to bring her mother into this. As soon as they had reached the hallway, Alice sprang from her room and put her black belt to good use. These men were strong, stronger than she was but it didn't seem that they had any martial arts training at all. Alice got a good shot at the men, giving one a black eye and knocking the other one down the stairs but then the first man held her arms to her side and the woman appeared with a needle. Alice thrashed and kicked out but it was no use, the last thing she saw before she blacked out was her mother crying.

Alice awoke strapped to a stretcher, her arms and legs had been restrained so that she couldn't lash out. She had never felt so powerless and trapped before in her life. Martial arts gave her the chance to be powerful, to protect herself but yet here she was completely powerless, she couldn't even do as much as scratch her nose.

Her mother appeared in the doorway, followed closely by the burly man with the black eye. Carol held her hand close to her mouth as she sobbed silently and Alice looked at her desperately,

"Help me please, mom, get me out of here. I need to find Hatter. I need to go back to Wonderland. Please help me." Alice was crying too now,

"Shh, please, Alice, just rest. They're going to make you feel better here." Carol's voice wavered as she walked over and smoothed Alice's sweat-matted hair from her face, "Is all of this really necessary?" Carol snapped at the man following her,

"It's for her own safety as well as everyone else's. She has violent tendencies, something which you failed to mention to us, Ma'am. We weren't ready for such an outburst." The man seemed to be sour about his black eye,

"She doesn't normally. She was just taken by surprise, that's all. She was just trying to protect herself. I wouldn't have called you if I knew that you were going to strap her to a bed like this."

"You called them?" Alice asked in outrage. She tried to move away from her mother's hand, which proved more difficult then she had first imagined, but Carol got the idea and moved her hand away,

"I had to Alice, I couldn't just stand by and watch you destroy your life like that. There are professionals here that can help you."

"I don't need help." Alice spat back at her mother,

"Okay, that's enough for today. You can come back and visit another time." The man ushered Carol from the room,

"Tell Amber where I am." Alice shouted back at Carol, "At least she'll understand."


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter twenty

Hatter was lying on the forest floor. He could have sworn that it had been sunrise when he last closed his eyes but all around him now was nothing but darkness, not even the stars were out to watch over him. He was truly alone.

Hatter tried to sit up but roots shot out of the ground and held him down tight, no matter how hard he thrashed and fought against them he just couldn't break free. They held his arms straight by his side and crushed his legs flat against the ground. He tried to call out for help just as another knarled root crept over and twisted itself over his mouth. And then suddenly Alice was there, standing over him, tears washing her face as she knelt down slowly beside him.

Hatter awoke with a start, scaring Duchess who had been asleep a short while away from him.

"You were asleep!" she snapped at him, "I thought you were keeping watch!"

"I thought _you_ were keeping watch!" he shot back at her. The pair both stood up and tried to shake off their sleepiness, "Maybe we should get going." Hatter suggested,

"Fine." Duchess wrapped her arms around her middle tightly as if trying to hold herself together. They weren't far now from the Red King, in the next day perhaps they would reach him, but then what? They still didn't have a plan,

"We should get there soon." Hatter stated, looking out over the trees.

"Good." Duchess nodded nervously.

"And, do you have a plan yet?" he asked,

"Not a clue. I'm kind of making it up as I go along." She admitted, this was the last straw for Hatter, he'd had enough of Duchess.

"I should never have agreed to this. I mean what the bloody hell am I doing here anyway? I could have just pretended that I didn't hear you, let you slip off into the night alone. You haven't thought about this at all. We're walking straight into the grip of the man that wants us dead. You're going to get us both killed because of your stupid jealously over Alice!" Hatter shouted and Duchess slapped him hard around the face,

"I couldn't just sit around doing nothing! And I'm stupid? At least I'm not sitting around pining for someone who's never coming back. Just face it Hatter, she's gone. You're never getting her back. The sooner you admit that to yourself the better."

From around the corner the sound of horses caught Hatter's attention. Someone was close, moving fast towards them, he held his finger to his lip and Duchess narrowed her eyes at him,

"Don't be so patronizing, I will talk as much as I want to!"

"No, shut up!" he whispered loudly and pulled her quickly to the side, but it was too late, three Knights on horses had appeared in front of them, all of them holding swords. "Too late!" Hatter shouted, pushing her aside. He readied his punching hand and drew it back before pummelling it into one of the Knight's arms and breaking it, he dropped his sword it agony and Hatter picked it up.

"You any good with a sword?" he asked Duchess as he threw the weapon to her,

"I guess we'll see, won't we." She thrust the sword towards one of the Knights that was approaching her but he blocked it. He was backing her into a corner, she was trapped behind two trees. Her only chance of escape was if she ran, but the man would surely catch her, she wasn't a very fast runner.

Hatter appeared suddenly, hitting the Knight from behind. He turned around with great annoyance and hit Hatter square in the jaw.

"RUN!" Hatter commanded and Duchess took off as fast as she could. She was almost a safe distance away when she heard Hatter cry out in agony. Torn between getting herself to safety and these new feelings of compassion for Hatter, she begrudgingly followed her heart and ran back to help Hatter. He was being held down by one Knight as another one hit him repeatedly in the face, the third Knight lay on the ground a while away, apparently dead.

Duchess didn't have much choice, she quickly removed her shoe before she could think too much about it and threw it at the knight with as much force as she could muster. It hit him in the head heel first and knocked him out. Hatter and the other Knight stared at Duchess in stunned silence; Hatter took advantage of the Knight's bewilderment and knocked him out.

"That was...that was, yeah...how did you do that?" Hatter asked, jumping to his feet. Duchess strode over, calmly and confidently to retrieve her shoe. "Well at least we don't have to walk anymore." Hatter stated, gathering the reins of two of the horses and letting the third one run free. "We'll get there a lot sooner."

"Good." Duchess stated, mounting the horse in silence.

II.

Alice lay on the uncomfortable bed in silence, the near darkness of the mental institute was all around her but it was far from quiet here. Every night the other patient's inner demons seemed to come out, some would scream, others would cry, nearly everyone was yelling to be let out, or insisting that they didn't belong there. She couldn't be heard. Alice had stopped trying to fight it, what if she was mad, they obviously thought that she was, and she had no proof of Wonderland's existence. What if it _had_ all happened inside of her head? She closed her eyes and tried to sleep through the noise out of pure exhaustion.

"_You're not mad." _A voice sounded through her head, it was the same voice that had come out of the mirror just the other night. At first Alice sat up in alarm and looked around the room for the source of the news, but she already knew that it had come from her inside of her head.

"_You must stay strong." _It said again,

"I don't know what to do anymore. Look at me, I'm talking to myself for crying out loud! I'm mad as a box of frogs." She half laughed, half cried.

"_You're not mad." _She repeated, _"You will be the saviour of Wonderland."_

"I can't even save myself. How am I supposed to save Wonderland? I'm stuck in here."

"_The time will come when all will become clear. Everything happens for a purpose my dear."_

"I'm sick of all this. I'm sick of being stuck on this side of the Looking Glass. I'm just so...tired." Alice lay back on the bed and closed her eyes.

"_You can't give up." _Alice opened her eyes and stared up blankly at the pale yellow ceiling. _"You are stronger than this Alice Hamilton. I believe in you."_

Alice stared blankly at the ceiling for another two hours after the voice had gone silent. She wasn't sure just who Alice Hamilton was anymore. But she had someone who believed in her, people were counting on her to get through this. The voice was right, she wasn't mad, although she didn't really think that admitting it out loud that the voice inside her head had told her that she wasn't mad would help. She had to be strong, for Wonderland, for Hatter.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter twenty-one

Alice had become accustomed to her new morning routine. Always being flanked by two burly men, having her breakfast and medication before an hour of what could only be described as Kindergarten for adults followed by a group session and a solo session with a physiatrist. Every day the same dreary routine, she could feel her mind numbing and becoming duller with each day and each new influx of drugs. As far as mental torture went, Alice thought that she preferred the insane methods of Dr. Dum and Dr. Dee from Wonderland. She tried telling this to her physiatrist once with a small smile, she'd gotten fed up of trying to hide things from them and so told them the truth. A small part of her registered that this probably wasn't a wise move, but that part of her was slowly becoming fainter and fainter.

"So, Alice, how are you feeling today?" Doctor Claret asked with a small smile,

"I'd be a lot better if I was out of here." Alice pulled at a loose thread in her sleeve,

"This isn't a prison, Alice, we're here to help you." She reached across her desk and picked up a file with Alice's name printed across it. Doctor Claret opened it and scanned the lines of neatly printed penmanship, "So, Alice, have you heard any more voices recently?" she asked,

"It's a voice, not voices." Alice protested, as if to prove her point, the voice sounded in her head once more. Alice smiled to herself,

"_Be strong." _

"Okay, voice, singular. Have there been any more repeats of said voice?"

"_Have restraint my child. Keep me a secret."_

"No, none at all." Alice lied, the more the voice talked to her the more she could feel it washing away some of the numbness within her, her mind was becoming sharper and more alert.

"Okay." Doctor Claret scanned her notes again for the next point to bring up, "What about Wonderland? In our last meeting you said that you were going to find a way back there that you had to get back to...Hatter. How have you been feeling about that recently?"

"_Be strong, Alice, show restraint. You know what she wants to hear."_

"To tell you the truth Doctor, I'm never going to get back to Wonderland." Alice stated and Dr. Claret looked up from over her notes, her pen was poised ready to write down more, "I'm never going back because none of it is real. I think I created Wonderland as an escape from the real world. I was finding it hard to deal with loss and so I created my own world on the other side of the mirror. I made David into Hatter because I couldn't deal with him being an ordinary guy and when he left me I convinced myself that he had been taken into my mirror world because it was easier to deal with than the fact that another man had left my life." Even saying it out loud it sounded like the more believable option, but Alice was stronger than to just lay down and accept what was easy.

"_I am proud of you, my child. You're time will come soon."_

Doctor Claret looked sceptical of Alice's sudden change of heart, she scanned her notes once more, "I see, any dreams or nightmares, anything at all that you want to mention?" Well, there was always the reoccurring nightmare of Duchess making out with her fiancé...

"No, nothing at all." Alice said with a small smile, "Is that everything? Because I think lunch is about to be served and I am starving." Alice rubbed her stomach just as it grumbled loudly for dramatic effect,

"Very well, I think that's all for today." Doctor Claret finished writing in Alice's file and motioned for the two burly men at the door to walk Alice back to the cafeteria. Alice felt strong for the first time since before Hatter left. She felt like her old self again, not the shell of the girl she used to be, like she had when she got here.

Alice pilled her tray with food, she reached the end of the line and took the small cup of medication from the nurse who waited to make sure that she took them,

"_Don't swallow them, my child. They will only put back what we have worked so hard to achieve. Be clever about it though."_

Alice hid the tablets under her tongue like she used to when she was younger and was faking illness to get a day off school. She showed the nurse her apparently empty mouth before moving back to her table and spitting them out into her hand and sliding them into her dressing gown pocket.

"_Very good." _The voice praised and Alice helped herself heartily to a mountain of mashed potato.

After lunch, Alice returned to the recreational room. This was the worst part of her day. Alice was more of a physical person, she preferred to spend her free time taking her anger out on a punching bag or being active and productive, unfortunately, they didn't really allow patients to do anything physical, they preferred them to be calm and mellow. It almost killed Alice to sit there and put together a puzzle or watch a cheery, happy film where nothing gets blown up and no one gets hurt. And if she had to look at another painting of a flower or a fruit she would literally hurt someone. Luckily, she had a guest to occupy her time. Her mother stood nervously on the far side of the Rec room, flanked by Amber who had a sympathetic look on her face. Alice pretended not to see them and took a seat in front of a set of dominos. She started lining them up just as Carol and Amber took a seat on the other side of the table.

"How are you, sweetheart?" Carol asked in a slightly louder voice than usual,

"I'm mad, remember, not deaf." Alice didn't look up from her dominos.

"You're not mad, sweetheart, you just needed a bit of help, that's all."

"Because being locked in a loony bin was really helpful, thanks mom, you're the best." Alice said sarcastically, Alice looked up at the two, "And you're being awfully quiet Amber, by my measure, if I'm mad, then you should be locked up in here too, there's a lovely room opposite mine that's going free."

"Alice, please." Carol's voice was shaking with emotion and Alice sighed,

"If you want to help me, get me out of here. I'm not mad, I don't belong in here." Alice stated,

"Alice, please don't make this any harder than it already is. I've got an appointment to speak with your Doctor. I'll be right back." Carol left her seat and disappeared down the hall, leaving Amber and Alice alone,

"_Be wary with this one, Alice."_

"Why did you let this happen? Why did you let her put me in here?" Alice asked in outrage,

"I didn't know what she was going to do. But now that she has done it, I can see that it is for the best."

"I don't understand? You know that I'm not mad, Amber, you're from Wonderland!"

"I know I am, but you're not. You don't belong there. He wanted you, Alice. He wanted you dead. I couldn't let him, I made a deal, I tricked him. I told him that I would lure you to the mirror as long as after that, the mirrors would never be opened again, we split the stone of Wonderland, he has half, and I have the other, the Looking Glasses doesn't work without both halves together, it was the only way that I knew he wouldn't go back on his deal. I was going to offer myself, but then Hatter came in. He wasn't of this world, he was from Wonderland, he belonged back in his own world, so I let the King take him, just so long as you would be safe on this side."

"What?" This was too much information for Alice to get at once,

"But don't you see? With half on each side there is no way for both halves to be reunited, the Looking Glass will never open again. But there are others, on his side, they came through the Looking Glass before your Hatter went through, they're in this world. But as long as you are in this...this place, you're safe, Alice."

"Why, why would you do this? Why would you split the stone? Who are you Amber?"

"I guess my official title would be the Red Queen of Wonderland, but it's not by any choice of my own, let me tell you..."

"I thought you left Wonderland as a teenager, though?" Alice asked, her brain was started to hurt with the sudden influx of information,

"I did, I was eighteen when I left. Arranged marriages are never pretty, and unluckily for me, I got the worst of the bunch, he was bloodthirsty and ruthless and just plain cruel. I saw my opportunity and ran through the Looking Glass, searching for a better life. He didn't know where I was until he came looking for you through the mirror in my shop. You are such a good person, Alice, I couldn't let him hurt you."

"So you just threw Hatter to him! He could be dead! Why does this Red King want me so bad? What's so special about me?"

"I didn't plan for Hatter to go through, I saw the opportunity and I took it, as for you, why Alice, you're the most special one there ever was. I could see it when I first met you, and even more so now. You're the very one who my beloved bastard husband fears the most."

"But why me?" Alice shouted and attracted the attention of the two men that followed her around everywhere,

"I think that's enough visitors for today. I think it's time you left, Ma'am." One of the men said to Amber, who left her seat with the same sympathetic expression that she had entered the room with.

The men started to lead Alice back to her room but her mind was elsewhere,

"_She speaks the truth, but do not despair, there is still hope."_

How could there be hope, if the Stone of Wonderland was in two halves, Alice wondered, There was no possible way for the Looking Glasses to be opened again, she was never going to see Hatter again. This started to send the edges of her mind fuzzy and numb again as it tried to freeze out the negative thought.

"_No. You mustn't give up, Alice. There is still a way. You're almost ready."_

"Ready for what?" Alice asked aloud, one of the men turned around to look at her,

"Pardon?"

"Oh, nothing." Alice continued staring off into the distance,

"_When the time is right, you will see."_

"You know, I'm getting really sick and tired off all of your cryptic crap. Can't you just give me a straight answer for once!"

"Okay, lady, I think it's about time that you calmed down a bit."

"_Alice, show restraint."_ The voice warned,

"My world is crashing around me and you want me to shut up?" the men's grip around her arms tightened and Alice resisted against it,

"Calm down." They warned but Alice thrashed against their hold on her once more and her Doctor appeared carrying a large needle,

"No! Not again!" Alice fought as hard as she could,

"_Alice, this is important, you must listen to me now. You must be stronger than ever. Fight against the effects of the drugs, keep your mind strong and your true power will follow."_

The needle went into her arm and almost instantly Alice could feel herself becoming drowsy,

"_Fight it, Alice."_

"I'm tired noff fickting." Alice found it hard not to mince her words as everything around her became black.

Alice awoke in Wonderland, she was back inside of the forest that often plagued her dreams, but this time it felt different, the edges were a lot more wobbly and blurred, as if everything was moving out of the corner of her eyes but when she turned either way, everything looked normal. She walked for a short while until she came across a long table. Sat at one end of the table was Hatter, only he wore a much bigger and more manic smile than Alice was accustomed to. Nevertheless, she still ran to his side, he poured her a cup of tea from a furry teapot and handed it to her,

"Hatter? What's going on." She looked down at the cup suspiciously,

"You're dreaming of course." He sniffed the teapot before wrinkling his nose in disgust and throwing it over his shoulder, where it quickly scuttled off. Hatter reached for another teapot and poured himself a cup of tea that was the most violent shade of pink that Alice had ever seen, "Or am I dreaming? I can never tell these days." Hatter poured his tea from his cup into his saucer and proceeded to lap it up with his tongue like an animal.

"Well then how do I wake up?" Alice reached and pinched herself, but to her surprise, not only did it hurt, but nothing happened, "I can't wake up."

"Of course you can't, you're asleep." Hatter laughed, "If you could be awake whilst you were asleep then there would be no use for dreams."

Something caught Alice's eye in the distance, the flutter of material as it disappeared behind a tree. Alice quickly ran after it. All of a sudden she was face to face with the elderly woman from her hand mirror back home, the same woman who had been talking to her thoughts recently,

"I am sorry to invade your dreams like this." She apologized. Alice looked back at the deranged Hatter who was attempting to pour tea into an upside down teacup and becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of tea available for him to drink from it.

"Trust me, it's no problem."

"The time is almost right for you to come to Wonderland, my child."

"I don't understand how though, Amber split the stone, it can't work anymore."

"There is something that I must tell you, a secret that has been kept long enough. I am going to take you, through your dreams to a memory of my own, well a selection of memories, I think that all will become clear afterwards."

Alice looked back at Hatter for a final time,

"Don't worry about him, my dear. He is simply a reflection of a part of your mind. The part that wants to believe that Wonderland is too crazy to actually exist, so therefore you must be crazy too. You need to let go of that part in order to move forwards. You need to be strong."

Alice turned her back on Hatter's mad tea party and took a deep breath, before following the old woman forward through the trees.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter Twenty-Two

Alice followed the elderly woman through the tall trees and to a place that was made up of nothing more than ink shadows swirling in water. Slowly and surely the ink solidified into objects and a room started to form around the pair, Lavinia however, remained nonplussed by the commotion forming around her Alice on the other hand, proceeded to stare with fascination at the unfamiliar scenery and more than once had to sidestep to avoid a solidifying person or building.

From what Alice could tell they were in San Francisco and from the influx of "flower-power" that was being thrust in her face it was mid 60s. A younger version of Lavinia faced her older shadow and the elderly woman reached out a sad hand to her younger face.

"Time can be such a cruel mistress." The younger Lavinia seemed unaware of Alice and her older self's presence in front of her and continued to smile dreamily at a daisy that a stranger had handed to her not moments ago. A voice that was strangely familiar to Alice called out for Lavinia and a swish of raven and silver hair turned in perfect unison towards the man jogging towards them. He scooped the young Lavinia up in his arms and spun her around until she squealed with joy.

"I have lived my life many times, Alice but I had never truly lived it. Until I met George that was. I had never loved like I loved him, and so it was because of him that my life took a very different turn. But I was young and desperate to see what freedom was like in a world where no one knew who I was or what I could do." The older Lavinia traced a shaking hand around the outline of the young man's face, but when his green eyes looked straight through her blue ones without seeing them her hand fell, sadly to her side.

"What happened to him?" Alice asked,

"Come there is yet more to see." Lavinia walked forwards through the crowd, the people dissolving into inky swirls as she passed through them, Alice still tried to sidestep them as she struggled to keep up with the elderly woman who was surprisingly fast for her age. Alice wasn't sure when it had turned night or if it had been night all along but she found herself standing in the middle of a darkened street without much recollection of how she had gotten there. Lavinia was standing beside her, opposite the younger shadow of the Seer herself. She was wearing a cleaner, fresher version of the very cloak that the older woman held tightly around herself and she appeared to be clutching something closely to her chest and trying to keep it out of sight. The young man from the previous memory appeared on the street wearing a long, black coat. It seemed so solemn and dreary compared to the bright colours and psychedelic patterns of the previous scene. A small cry broke out from beneath her robes and the man's attention turned to it with a softened stare.

"Is that him?" asked George to which Lavinia nodded, trying to sniff back her tears,

"You know I wouldn't leave if I didn't have to." Lavinia kissed the baby's head before passing him to his father,

"I know. It's the safest thing for you both."

"You have a son." Alice stated, turning to the old woman who nodded back solemnly.

"You were actually quite acquainted with him for a while."

"Wait, you're not gonna jump out and tell me you're Hatter's mother or something are you?" Alice looked up at the woman with a scared expression.

"Oh no." She laughed softly, "But you did love my son, if in a very different way to how you feel about young Hatter."

Lavinia walked further down the street as the ink started to swirl once more and the image changed to that of George looking slightly older and a lot more tired, and a boy of around four or five running rings around him.

"Rob, slow down."

"I watched from afar as my son grew into a man and started a family of his own." Lavinia narrated as the boy slowly morphed into a younger version of a face that Alice knew oh so well.

"Daddy." Alice muttered in shock, "Rob. Robert Hamilton. And George, my grandfather, George. Your son is my dad?" Alice's head was spinning, "That would make you my..."

"Grandmother, yes." Lavinia nodded with a small smile. "I kept myself hidden for a very long time. I thought that if I didn't draw attention to myself your father would be safe, but all too soon they found him."

Alice was faced suddenly with a scene that she really didn't want to see. She was back on her street faced with her old house and her father holding a trash can and walking across her front drive.

"No. I don't want to be here. Not at this time."

"He didn't go voluntarily. They tricked him Alice. They thought that he might have inherited my gifts and so took him to Wonderland. When they found that he didn't have any power, they changed him, used him for their own purposes, they turned Wonderland on its head and forced its people to either change or be shunned into hiding." Lavinia's eyes flashed dangerously, "Yet still, I stuck to the shadows. I didn't get involved. Wonderland had shunned me, my powers grew weaker as I got older and people forgot, I was nothing but a Seer to them, hiding out in the forests like a coward. It wasn't until news of Robert's death reached me that I stopped my silence, that I stepped out of the shadows and sought the resistance. I learnt of my son's fiery, dark haired daughter that had brought down the Hearts Casino and I knew then that it would be you. It had always been you. You would be the saviour of Wonderland."

"Some saviour." Alice muttered, "I'm a basketcase. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm locked up in an insane asylum, I can't exactly do much for Wonderland from here."

"You'll know what to do when the time is right." Lavinia gave Alice a knowing look before she found herself back at the clearing with the mad Hatter. He was currently trying to figure out what the use of Alice was if she didn't have a working tea spout.

"Get off." Alice batted him away, "I'll find you. Soon enough. I'm coming to find you."

"But I'm right here. Stay here with me Alice." Hatter pleaded, looking much more like his old self, Alice looked into his eyes and immediately regretted it. She longed to have him look at her like that once more.

"But you're not real. You're inside of my head." Alice protested, forcing herself to close her eyes, when she opened them again she was standing alone at the table. "No, I didn't mean it. Come back. Hatter, come back!"

"_Alice."_ Charlie's voice called out from the distance,

"Charlie?" Alice called back in confusion, she could see a breaking in the trees ahead of her that led back to her cold, dark room of the asylum. She walked towards them just as her world went blurred and she woke up inside of her orange sheets that were too cheery for such a sad place. She sat up with a start and pushed her dark hair off of her face. As she did so, she noticed a glint in the mirror that was mounted to the wall in the tiny adjacent bathroom.

Alice quickly found her feet and made her way to the bathroom. She wasn't really sure what she was going to do, but sure enough, Lavinia was right. Now that she was faced with the mirror it just felt natural for her to lay her palms across its cold surface and concentrate on Wonderland.

She thought of the first time she had set foot in Wonderland. Of its strange buildings and aversion to having buildings that all touched the floor. She remembered Hatter and his tea shop and the very first time she had met him. She pictured him walking around her and offering her a purple coat. She saw him riding in on a horse and sleeping against a fence post; his hat resting upon his knee. She saw him sitting beside the fire with Charlie and all the close shaves that they went through together. She imagined the feel of his arms around her and the deep sense of longing she had for him since he left. In a way it was this longing that had finally convinced the mirror to admit her passage and Alice sneaked a peak just as an intricate pattern started to twist itself around the frame of the mirror, a pattern of vines and crowns, the symbol of Wonderland in its purest form just as the glass jellified and Alice passed through it as if it were no more than air between them and she fell head first into Wonderland at last.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter Twenty-Three

Alice landed with a thud on the cold, wet ground of the forest floor. She quickly found her feet and punched the air with joy as she spun around, her finger tips spread wide and her face turned up towards the sky. She was in Wonderland. At last.

Suddenly something glinted in the trunk of a tree and Alice went over to investigate. Dug quite deep into the tree's base was a bent metal pole, just thick enough to be able to hold a man's weight whilst he climbed the tree. Her face shot up towards the sky once more and if she listened closely she could just about hear pots and pans gently hitting one another as someone attempted to cook.

Alice wasn't sure if they were friends or foe, but she couldn't wait on the ground long enough to find out, before she knew it she had already climbed half the tree and it seemed only rational to carry on climbing at that point. Once she reached the top, she slowly and silently lifted her head over floor and peeped at the tree settlement before her. Familiar faces graced her, Jack, the Seer, Owl and Duck, even Charlie was there gently singing "_Hey nonny nonny. Heeeeey nonny nonny."_

Alice quickly pulled herself up onto the ledge and ran full pelt at her old friends and gathered them up in a tight embrace. Guards quickly sprang to action and peeled Alice from Jack, thinking that she was an enemy.

"No, wait. It's alright. Alice?" Jack stepped forward first with a look of confusion but then with deep joy.

"You're here!" he gathered her up in his arms and spun her round once. It was the happiest Jack had been in a long time. "But wait, how did you find us?"

"I saw the peg in the tree." She explained with a smug smile, Jack turned to Owl and Duck.

"Some secret hideaway this turned out to be. First Hatter and Charlie find us, now Alice too." Jack rolled his eyes,

"Hatter!" Alice nearly burst, she peered behind Jack and Charlie expecting him to jump out at any moment, "Where is he?" Jack looked to the ground with sympathetic eyes, "Jack?"

"He and Duchess..." Jack began but Alice cut him off,

"Duchess? What about Hatter and Duchess?" Alice's voice got higher as a feeling of dread started to rise deep in her stomach and she had to hold her eyes tightly shut to try and stop the images from her reoccurring nightmare from filling her head once more.

"They left together a few nights ago, to try and stop the Red King." Jack explained,

"What? And no one's heard back from him since?" Alice desperately searched the faces of the resistance for some sign of hope, but none found her. "Then what the hell do you think you're doing sitting in trees all day? I thought you were the resistance! Well? Go resist or whatever! What are you waiting for?"

"You." Jack replied simply, "You are our only hope, Alice."

"You know, I'm getting pretty sick and tired of everyone saying that. I'm just Alice. I'm not that special. You've been sitting around up here waiting for a miracle, but I'm no miracle. I'm just a person, like you, that has a fight to fight. There are enough of you here to at least try to do something, but no. What did you think would happen? That I'd walk in and all of a sudden the Red King would just throw down his crown and run away? No, he wants me dead as much as he wants any of you dead. So we have to work together."

II.

"You're mad, did you know that?" Duchess growled as she and Hatter proceeded to run from a group of Red Knights,

"As a box of frogs, now run faster!" Hatter took hold of her hand and pushed her to run faster, "You know, if you took those ridiculous shoes off, you'd run a lot faster."

"Fine, you want the shoes so badly, here." She hopped to scoop off her shoes and threw them to Hatter.

"I don't want them you lunatic!" Hatter threw them over his shoulder in the hopes that it would slow down the Red Knights that were after them, but they did nothing other than piss off already angry Knights.

"Those were my favourite shoes!" Duchess cried in outrage.

"Well, if we ever get out of this alive, I'll buy you a new pair, okay?"

"Quick, this way." Duchess pulled Hatter quickly sideways into an open doorway and closed the door slightly behind them. The Knights were far enough behind not to see them enter the tiny storeroom and so carried on running down the narrow hallway.

The space inside of the storeroom was small and so Hatter and Duchess were stood incredibly close to one another.

"Thanks." Hatter muttered, looking down at Duchess, she had seemed to lose a remarkable amount of height since she lost her shoes and Hatter wasn't used to it yet.

"Listen, Hatter, thank you for coming with me in the first place. And for saving me back at the forest. I'd probably be dead by now if it weren't for you." Duchess smiled shyly and sincerely,

"Don't worry about it." Hatter replied with his usual charm. Their faces were mere inches apart and Duchess took advantage of the intimate moment and laid a soft yet passionate kiss on to Hatter's lips. He pushed her away quickly out of shock and confusion.

"What the hell was that?" he asked loudly in outrage,

"It was what you wanted too, don't deny it!" Duchess replied defensively,

"It was the last thing that I wanted! I'm in love with Alice, Duchess, I want to marry her. You knew that."

All of a sudden the storeroom was flooded with light as the door swung open and presented the Red King, flanked by a dozen Knights, all pointing their guns in the direction of Hatter and Duchess.

"Sorry to interrupt this...awkward moment. But here's a tip for you. If you're going to hide, it's best not to have a domestic loudly for everyone to hear. It sorta gives away your position." The Red King patronized, "Get them." He gestured for his Knights. Duchess and Hatter had no way of escaping.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter Twenty-Four

"You know what, thanks a lot! For all we know Alice could be in Wonderland by now and all we've accomplished is to get ourselves captured! Cause all I really wanted to do was rot in a prison, really, thank you Duchess. And then you think that I actually did all of this for you, like I would actually just forget about Alice. You know, I should have just left you to go by yourself, or called Jack to talk some sense into you or something." Hatter grumbled, looking at Duchess with hate filled eyes. She was sitting, half in darkness on the other side of the cell with her head in her hands.

"Then why didn't you?" she replied, her eyes still fixed on the ground, "I never asked you to come along. You had a choice. You've always had a choice, but me, I've never had a choice. This is just how my life is." She never looked up from the ground the whole time she talked.

"What are you talking about? You've had nothing but luxury your whole life. You're engaged to the King of Wonderland for crying out loud."

"Don't presume to know me Hatter. You don't know me, you don't know what my life has been like. Do you know that I can't even remember my childhood? Nothing, I don't know if I was loved, if I had a family if we had money or why I was even wandering the streets that day." She looked up and made eye contact with Hatter, "I was eleven when the Queen found me, took me in, taught me how to be a woman, I was grateful, but I didn't have a choice in the matter, I couldn't play like the other children. The only thing I knew was the Hearts. Then as I got older and Jack joined the resistance I was told that I was to marry him. It was all arranged for us, neither of us had a choice, the Queen hoped that I could seduce him, learn the resistances' secrets. But all I succeeded in was pushing him further away from me. I loved the goodness in him but he grew colder towards me. I thought our arranged marriage might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, but then Alice appeared. She very nearly took Jack from me, Hatter. I know she didn't do it maliciously, Hatter, so don't give me that face. But it's true, he wanted her more than he wanted me." Duchess looked to the wall, "Then the Hearts started to shun me, the Queen accused me of having an affair with her husband, Jack didn't want anything to do with me anymore, I was nothing more than a slut to them, they created me but they only wanted to use me. I got Jack out from Doctor Dum and Dee's torture, helped him escape the Casino, and then what does he do? Propose to Alice at the Looking Glass. Once the two of you left things got better, I was even happy for a while, it took him a while to trust me again, but it was hard for me too. I don't know who I was before I met the Hearts. I don't know who I am truly. I guess I'm still figuring that out. So you cannot sit there and tell me who I am, because I don't even know."

"Duchess..." Hatter stared at her apologetically, searching his mind for the right words to say, "You found your choice. You could have stayed back at the camp, been the obedient, silent woman that everyone expected you to be, but no. You thought with your own mind, you could see that waiting around wasn't going to do you or anyone else any good, so you took it into your own hands. You're brave, Duchess."

"I'm stupid. I had no real plan, like you said, we're only in here because of me." She pulled her knees up under her chin.

"Some things are better without a plan. Like now for instance, let's get out of here." Hatter jumped to his feet and started surveying the cell. It was different to the one he had first found himself inside of, this one had no ventilation, however it did have a small window at the very top of the room and a door with a tiny sliding window built into it. "Right, so our options are, somehow manage to break the steel bars and squeeze through a tiny window, or break down the reinforced door." Hatter looked the door up and down just as it clicked and swung open, causing both him and Duchess to jump back in surprise.

Standing in the rectangle of light that was now flooding the cell was the Red King, being flanked by two Red Knights who, after a double click from the Red King, moved forward and took hold of Hatter, dragging him from the cell.

"Where are you taking him?" Duchess asked, stumbling forwards.

"Oh, don't worry my dear. You'll be next." The door swung shut behind him and reinforced Duchess's feeling of hopelessness with a distinctive metallic click.

II.

Alice helped the men pack up all that they would need on their journey and prepared to set off. Alice could see that they didn't stand much of a chance against a full blown army, with no horses or means of transport and a limited number of men, but she hoped that they could be cunning and strong enough to win this battle and take back Wonderland.

"I will escort you." Charlie puffed out his chest which only caused him to splutter and wheeze,

"I would be honoured, truly Charlie, I would. But I think it would be better for you to stay here, with Lavinia." She smiled graciously at her newly acquired grandmother.

"Oh no, my dear, I am coming with you too." She smiled,

"No offence, but I don't want either of you getting hurt, maybe it would be best if you stayed here, kept the ones that are staying behind safe?"

"You may think that we are old and past it, Alice. But we sure don't. You could need our help. After all, battles aren't won by brute strength alone, they take patience and cunning to win."

"She's right, Alice." Jack appeared behind them, "We may need them. You two are welcome to join us." Jack smiled at the pair and Alice rolled her eyes.

"We will try not to slow you down." Lavinia said with a wry smile before turning to gather up her belongings.

Alice didn't have a plan, in fact she felt very much like a fraud. All of these people had been hiding, sat waiting for her based off of a prophecy that she would be their saviour. But she didn't have the slightest clue how to save them, she wasn't a miracle, she was just...Alice. That was all that she had ever been. She knew that they couldn't just march up to the Red King and everything would be sorted so simply, all that she knew was that she couldn't stand waiting any longer. She had waited long enough inside of her own world, and it had very nearly sent her mad. Alice thought back to the Hatter inside of her head, the one that was very much mad and how badly she had wanted to follow him in that brief moment. She hadn't even cared that he wasn't real or even himself, because she would rather have a version of him and surrender to madness, then have to live her life in that asylum pretending that he was nothing more than a dream. In that moment, she had very nearly surrendered to her madness and it was only Charlie's voice, filtering through to her, that reminded her of her real objectives and what she had to do. She owed Charlie, and the rest of Wonderland, the same guiding light. She just hoped that she wasn't leading them to their deaths.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five

Hatter doubled over in pain as a sharp blow to the stomach, followed by a jab to his jaw added yet more blood to his appearance. He spat out a mouthful of said blood and looked up at the Red King with hate filled eyes.

"Now I'm going to ask you one more time; Where. Is. Alice. Hamilton?" The Red King punctuated each word with another sharp blow to Hatter's stomach.

"I don't know." Hatter said through gritted teeth, "And even if I did, I wouldn't tell you, now would I?"

"Do you expect me to believe that? I know that you and the girl are, how shall I put it? Involved? I have my little spies integrated well into your pathetic little lives."

"Like Amber." Hatter stated with disgust, even the word felt wrong on his tongue.

"Amber? Oh no, she is very much on your side, I can assure you. Well, maybe not so much you." He added with a small smirk, "But Alice, oh yes, she is very interested in keeping her alive it seems. I knew that she would go back on her deal to give me Alice. I had very much expected to see her step through the looking glass herself, but what do I get instead? Some pathetic so called "hatter" that can't even make hats. You know in my day boy people's nicknames actually made sense. You're just mad."

"Why is having Alice so important to you? She wasn't even in Wonderland. She wasn't a threat to you!" Hatter groaned from the floor, trying to pull himself up onto his feet.

"But my dear boy, she was always a threat as long as she was alive. I want my rein to be perfect, and I can't have the granddaughter of the Great Sorceress of Wonderland running around out there somewhere waiting to take my throne."

"Alice never wanted your throne!" Hatter spat, "Besides, from the way I see it, you're nothing more than a coward." Hatter wrinkled his nose in disgust as he clutched his side. The Red King lunged forwards and hit Hatter once more in his stomach causing him to double over.

"I've grown tired of this boy." He motioned to his guards, "Take him back to his cell."

"Scared of the truth are we?" Hatter grinned manically, "You can't face it can you? You hid away whilst the Hearts wiped out the White Knights, lived in secret for all those years and only came out of hiding once the big bad threat was gone? Now you can't bear the thought that Alice is out there somewhere because you know you can't stop her from taking it from you. Once a coward, always a coward. You should have stayed and defended your people! You deserve all that's coming for you." Hatter spat at him as the Knights dragged him away.

II.

"Oh look!" Charlie exclaimed, bending down noisily to peer at a shrub of some kind, "Eglantine." He picked a handful of pink flowers from the shrub and handed some to Lavinia.

"Very fascinating, now can we carry on." Alice was growing evermore frustrated the longer it took to find Hatter and Duchess.

"You know it blooms only once." Charlie smiled, "and the leaves emit a pleasant apple-like fragrance. See?" He rubbed the foliage and shoved it beneath Alice's nose to which she batted him away. Jack could see her growing frustration and stepped in before she did or said something she would regret.

"If we keep a good pace we can stop and set up camp soon." He said with a charming smile,

"Very well." Charlie moaned, stuffing the apple-scented leaves into his pockets.

After another hour or so of walking they set up camp for the night. Darkness was starting to fall and many of the resistance had already settled down to sleep. Alice was sat by the fire, staring deep into its depths when Lavinia sat beside her and broke her concentration,

"You're thinking of something." She stated,

"Why does he want me? Is it because I'm related to you?" she turned to face her long-lost grandmother, "Does he think that I have your power? Because I don't. I'm weak and I'm powerless."

"You're not weak, my dear." Lavinia took hold of Alice's hand gently, "There is a lot of power within you. How else would you have been able to open a Looking Glass of your own? How else would Charlie's messages filtered through to you? You're a part of Wonderland, it calls to you in your sleep, am I right?" she looked to Alice with knowing eyes, "And, quite frankly, that scares some people, the Red King especially. He fears that you are a threat to him. That you want to take the throne for yourself."

"But I've never wanted to rule Wonderland." Alice was exhausted,

"I know, my child. But he doesn't, and right now, I think his fear of you might very well play to our advantage."

Alice considered her words as she looked into the fire once more. She waited until the old woman had shuffled off to settle down for the night before slipping away into the darkness of the night. It wasn't until light had touched the sleeping eyes of the resistance that any of them even realised she was missing and it was too late for them to do anything about it. Lavinia sent out a silent prayer that Alice's plan would work.

III.

Hatter was thrown rudely back into his cell and almost crashed straight into Duchess. She scuttled out of the way just in time, luckily for her, but not so much for Hatter, who flew headfirst into a brick wall. The door swung shut locking them in darkness once more.

"That looks like it hurts." Duchess stated from the corner, Hatter clutched his head,

"You think?" he slumped into a sitting position and rested his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands.

"You know I'm on your side here, Hatter. Stop treating me like the bad guy." Duchess turned away from him,

"I'm...I'm sorry." Hatter sighed, he touched his face and instantly regretted it. "From now on the past is the past. It's behind us and if we're ever gonna get out of here we've got to work together."


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter Twenty Six

Hatter's old, worn-out coat had served as a pillow on the hard, cold floor of the cell for Duchess. Whilst he had slept in a sitting position against the wall, his head slumped forward and one knee up and the other flat on the ground. Duchess noted how peaceful he looked whilst he slept. She knew that he didn't feel anything for her, and she wasn't even sure what or even if she felt anything for him. Duchess simply found it refreshing for once to have someone care about her who wasn't trying to sleep with her or get something from her. Hatter was helping her because it was the right thing to do, and Duchess admired that greatly. She chewed her lip gently as she smiled at her sleeping friend and started to think how she was going to get them both out of there.

All of a sudden a commotion outside of their cell caused Hatter to wake up and look to Duchess for answers.

"Don't look at me, I don't know what's going on." She shrugged and Hatter clambered to his feet to peer through the tiny keyhole in the door.

"It's the Knights, they're running around like headless chickens." Hatter smirked, bemused, "I wonder what's going on."

II.

Lavinia's words had struck a chord with Alice. If the Red King was so afraid of her, or at least of who he thought Alice was, then surely the best and only thing that she could do was play on that fear and make him believe that she was the most powerful sorceress in all of Wonderland and that she was coming for him. She knew that it was risky, that it could all go terribly wrong very quickly, but she had to believe in herself in order to expect the King to believe her, and she couldn't risk any more lives than her own.

Wearing Lavinia's pale cloak and allowing her hair to fall wild and free around her face, she walked calmly and confidently through the front door of the King's palace. She had expected it to look more like something out of Dungeons and Dragons but what faced her was a minimalist layout with every modern feature that she would expect at a five star hotel in her own world. Trying not to let it faze her, she kept her head held high and talked to the receptionist behind a large white granite desk.

"Tell the Red King that I'm here." Alice said in passing and carried on walking forwards, she wasn't even sure where she was going she was just hoping that any shred of Lavinia's powers had passed on to her and she would find the right way.

She passed down a corridor made entirely of red granite with many doors to her left and right and a large pendulum swung backwards and forwards at the end of the corridor. She thought for a moment to try one of the doors and see where it would lead her but Lavinia's voice in her head, calm and steady, kept her on track.

"_At the end of the corridor, behind the pendulum, that's where you'll find him."_

"_What_?" Alice thought in alarm, "_I'll get crushed by the pendulum!_"

"_Have faith my child and it will not hurt you. Believe in yourself."_

Alice took a deep breath and approached the giant, golden pendulum, in the gap between swings she could see that Lavinia was right and that there was another room on the other side.

"STOP!" Came the cry of a Knight from behind her. Alice chanced a quick glance over her shoulder just in time to see a collection of Red Knights approaching her. She inhaled deeply and closed her eyes as she took another step forwards followed by another and another. She could hear the loud whooshing sound as the pendulum swung through the air behind her. It sounded so close as if it were about to crash right into her but then it stopped, everything stopped in fact, she could no longer hear the increasing footsteps of the Knights or the cries for her to stop. She couldn't hear anything at all so when she chanced a peak she was only half surprised to see the pendulum stuck in mid air, only inches from herself and Knights frozen in mid step behind her. She sent out a silent thanks to Lavinia for her help in that part and stepped into the Red King's office, listening as the pendulum regained its swing once more and everything returned to normal.

The Red King jumped backwards at the sight of Alice who was illuminated in threshold of his office by the occasional patches of bright light from the red hallway.

"How did you get in here?" he called, Alice could see that he felt trapped and powerless and for some strange reason she took great delight in the fear that shone in his eyes. How funny it was that the "king" of Wonderland was afraid of little old her.

"_You must stay in control, Alice."_ Lavinia's voice warned.

"Yeah, yeah." She replied just as ten foot high flames shot out of the floor and surrounded his office, the Red King cried out in alarm as Alice started to walk towards him. She could feel the rush of all of Lavinia's powers mixing with those dormant ones of her own, all running through her veins at once.

"What's the problem? Feeling trapped are we?" the fire reflected in Alice's eyes making them appear foreign and ghostly.

"What do you want from me?" The Red King was cowering behind his desk. Alice raised a hand and he was pulled upwards and pinned to the back wall, the flames parting around him.

"You've done nothing but cause me trouble. This kingdom wasn't yours to claim. Jack and Duchess were kind, fair and just leaders, Wonderland's people lived in peace until you came along." Alice's voice even sounded foreign to herself, but she carried on nevertheless, "You forced them either into hiding or your own cells. Leave here. NOW!" she roared and let him drop to the floor, the flames dropping with him. He seemed more confident once he was on the ground.

"And what if I don't?" he asked cockily, eyebrow raised.

"Do you really want to test my wrath?" she asked incredulously, the flames shooting up once more,

"No, no no. I'm sorry. Please don't kill me." He begged,

"I won't hurt you as long as you tell me where Hatter and Duchess are. Then you can get the hell outta here."

"They're in the cells." He said, "At the end of the white corridor."

Alice thrust out a hand and watched as the pendulum swung so far left that it crashed into a wall and stuck there. She proceeded to walk at a quickened pace, her heart beating so fast that she was sure that it was about to leap right out of her chest as she approached the white corridor. Much like its red counterpart, it was also made entirely of granite with doors on either side and a large set of double doors at the end of it. Alice propelled her hands forward as the doors opened for her. Inside was another corridor made of stone, this one also had doors on either side but Alice didn't have a clue which one held her Hatter.

III.

"Hatter!" Alice's voice called out and Hatter's heart leapt into his chest,

"Alice?" he called back and was relieved to see that Duchess had heard it too and he wasn't losing his mind.

"Stand away from the door." She warned and Hatter had just enough time to scuttle backwards before the door swung open and bashed into the wall. Framed in the flickering light of the hallway stood Alice, a vision of raw power and beauty in an old cloak. Hatter could have sworn that her hair was even starting to lift itself from the static electricity that she was producing.

"How did you do that?" Duchess asked sceptically but Hatter didn't care. He ran, full pelt into Alice's arms and embraced her tightly and swung her around, causing her to shriek with delight. Alice was reminded of her vision of her Grandparents and smiled to herself.

"I thought I'd never see you again." Hatter held her face between his palms to get a good look at her before kissing her passionately.

"Yes, yes. There's plenty of time for that later." Duchess groaned, "Now can we get out of here before the Red King decides to kill us all please."

"Oh, you don't have to worry about him anymore." Alice rolled her eyes.

"Wanna bet?" Duchess looked over Alice's shoulder and all three of them turned to look at the Red King flanked by a whole army of Knights.

"I thought we talked about this." Alice narrowed her eyes at the Red King who was haunted by the orange glow that they had not that long ago had.

"Change of plan." He pulled a gun from inside of his jacket and shot it quicker than Alice could react. She was surprised not to feel any pain and was just about to scoff at the King for being a lousy shot when Hatter's shaking hand clasped at her elbow as he fell to the ground.

"NO!" she roared...


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter Twenty Seven

"No!" Alice roared as Hatter stumbled onto his knees, she fell to her knees beside him and ripped at his shirt, "Please tell me that you're wearing your bullet-proof vest." She muttered but cringed at the sight of the blood pouring from his chest. _Not again._ She thought to herself. Not after how her father died. "You'll be alright." She lied, her hands shaking and covered in Hatter's blood. She turned to the Red King, eyes furious.

"Why didn't you just kill me? He has no part in this!" Alice shrieked,

"Kill you?" The Red King laughed, "Why would I want to kill _you_ my dear? You're my biggest asset. Someone with your power on my side, why I would be unstoppable." Greed flashed in the Red King's eyes.

"I would rather die than work with you." Alice spat,

"Fine, it seems then that your boyfriend will die. I have healers Alice, he needs medical attention right away. Work for me and he will live."

Alice looked to Hatter, his face was streaked with tears, sweat and smudges of blood.

"Don't you dare." Hatter shook his head, "Leave me and get you and Duchess out of here now."

"I lost you once." Alice smiled sadly, kissing Hatter passionately. It was a bittersweet kiss, a kiss that didn't expect another one. It was a last kiss. Alice lay her forehead to Hatter's, a tear running down her cheek and landing on his, "I can't lose you again, I'm sorry." She stood up and Hatter tried to grab hold of her but she was too quick for him.

"Save him. Now. Then I'll join you." Alice held nothing but pure contempt for the Red King.

"First I need your solemn Oath, my dear. I can't have you changing your mind as soon as he's safe now can I." He held out a small goblet and a silver knife. He first ran the knife across the palm of his hand and dripped drops of his own blood into the goblet then thrust them towards Alice for her to do the same. "Traditions, I know, so old fashioned. But oaths are oaths. You must swear that I shall have command of your power in exchange for saving your friend."

Alice ran the blade across her palm and watched as the tiny drops of blood joined with the King's in the goblet. "I swear."

"No!" Hatter cried out and Duchess knelt beside him to apply pressure to his wound.

"Now save him." Alice commanded and the Red King rolled his eyes. He motioned to one of his Knights who stepped forward and clutched Duchess tightly under her arm and dragged her away.

"What are you doing? Save Hatter!" Alice called,

"No no no. You see, it's all in the wording my dear. I swore only to save a friend, singular. The friend is entirely of my choosing and I've taken quite a shine to the Duchess. She can go." He dismissed the knight with his hand and he continued dragging her down the stone corridor towards the double doors that led to the white one.

"This is your fault!" Duchess cried at Alice, "I had a plan, I was going to get us out of there. Everyone puts their blind faith in you, but all you do is make more trouble for everyone!" A single tear was streaking Duchess's face as she disappeared around the corner.

"You tricked me." Alice spat at the Red King. She knelt beside Hatter, she could feel that he was growing weaker, "Help him, please." Her voice was growing quieter and more helpless.

"Why don't you, oh great sorceress?" the Red King gave a wicked smile.

Alice lay her hand over Hatter's wound and concentrated with every ounce of power that she had left, but nothing happened other than she felt weaker, "I can't." She murmured. She searched her mind for any comforting words or instructions from Lavinia, but all was quiet. In fact, all had been quiet for a while, she couldn't remember the last time that she had heard Lavinia talk to her thoughts. Since the fire in the office Alice presumed, since the last time she had felt all consumed with Lavinia's powers.

"I don't know what to do." She muttered to Hatter, "I don't know how to save you. It's not working." She cried and Hatter brought a shaky hand to her face and held it firmly, leaving a smudge of blood across her cheek.

"Hey, I'm fine." He tried to laugh, "Don't worry about me, I'm tough. It was worth it just to see your face again." He smiled and Alice cradled his face with her hands, "I love you."

"I love you too." She kissed him gently, "But we were going to get married." Tears washed her face,

"Shh, don't cry, Alice. Please. I would have been a lousy husband anyway."

"There's no one I'd rather be married to." Alice sniffed back her tears, "And you're going to make it. Trust me. Now rest a minute but don't you dare fall asleep. Stay with me, please."

"I've grown bored with this now. Time to go." The Red King turned and started walking away from them. Alice could feel her wrist pulling towards him as if they were connected through some sort of invisible handcuffs. She tried to pull away but they were stronger than she was.

"You're connected to him now." Hatter said, "He can control you."

Alice felt something tear apart deep inside of her, like something finally breaking free and sending a charging current from her finger tips to her toes. She wasn't about to watch another person she loved die in Wonderland. She removed her cloak and wrapped Hatter in it silently, whispering to him to hold on before standing, calmly and confidently in the centre of the hallway.

The Red King came to a halt all of a sudden and tugged forwards with his wrist, causing Alice's to be pulled towards him.

"There's no fighting it my dear." He smirked,

Alice reached forward and clasped at the empty air. She was only half surprised to find that her hand found something solid, camouflaged in the empty space. She pressed down with all of her might and felt the invisible chains break and crumble under her power. Next she blocked the King's exit with a ten foot high barrier of flames.

"I think that we are more alike than you think, my dear Alice. You can use your powers to destroy, to evoke fear even, yet not to save the man that you love." The Red King smirked and Alice faltered for a second.

"We're nothing alike." She stated, she thrust her hand forward and all the cell doors flung open and their inmates scuttled towards the exit that wasn't on fire. All of a sudden she motioned her hand sideways and the King flew harshly into an empty cell, scuttling across the cold, stone floor before crashing into the wall. Alice slammed the door shut behind him and locked it magically.

Hatter made a noise from further down the hallway and Alice ran to him.

"You were amazing." He smiled, but it was a weak smile. He needed help quickly.

"Come on." She scooped him up in her arms, more easily thanks to Lavinia's powers coursing through her veins, "There has to be a mirror around her somewhere." She carried him into the white corridor and opened every door that was presented to her. Some led off to other corridors, some had whole rooms devoted to purely crazy things, and some had nothing at all inside of them, no walls, no floor, no ceiling, pure nothing. Those rooms scared Alice the most. However, luckily, the last door in the corridor held what she needed.

A giant mirror faced the pair. Alice lay Hatter down gently at the foot of the mirror and lay her palm on its cold surface. Just the way that she had entered Wonderland, she started thinking of Lavinia, and Charlie and Jack and the rest of the resistance. The more she concentrated she could almost see Lavinia and Charlie. Sat by a lake. She followed this image and surrounded herself with it. She didn't even have to open her eyes this time though to know that the mirror had admitted her passage, and she helped Hatter to his feet and the pair of them walked through the mirror.

What greeted them on the other side however was a freezing cold lake, of who's water they were drenched in and sat on the grassy bank, a relieved Lavinia and a bewildered Charlie.

"You're safe." She breathed a sigh of relief,

"We need help." Alice's voice broke as she lay Hatter down on the grassy bank and he started to shake...


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter Twenty Eight

"Duchess?" Jack questioned as the blur of gold material propelled itself into his arms. His bewilderment passed and he held her in his arms tightly, "Thank heavens you're safe. Is Alice with you?" Duchess pulled away from his arms. They were standing in the main reception area of the Red King's palace, Jack was flanked by various members of the resistance who were all in action poses, ready to fight whosoever got in their way.

"Alice?" Duchess repeated, "After all this time you're still putting Alice before me?"

"Of course not my darling. I was merely just inquiring after her safety..." he searched her eyes, "Is that what this was all about? You're jealous of Alice?" he gave a soft laugh.

"How could you even ask me that? Of course I am." She turned away from him,

"Can we discuss this later? Where are Hatter and Alice?" Jack asked and Duchess bit her tongue. She motioned with her head back the way she had just come and held herself together for fear of falling apart. Jack and the resistance ran towards the white corridor, leaving Duchess alone with her thoughts.

As they approached the double doors that led to the stone corridor of the cells, an open door caught Jack's attention. He ordered the rest of his men to carry on forward but he couldn't resist seeing what was within it. He was faced with the giant mirror that nearly took up the entire side of the wall. Jack held out a hand to the jellified glass and watched as his fingers played with its surface, the glass being manipulated by his touch. Alice had done it, she had opened a Looking Glass of her own. She was probably safe and sound with Hatter in her own world by now.

"You're Highness," came a voice from behind him. Jack turned to see that the biggest and burliest of his men was holding the Red King by the scruff of his neck. Jack caught sight of something hanging from his neck and ripped it from its chain.

"You're not fit to carry the stone of Wonderland." He said with disgust,

"Oh and you are? You Hearts stole it from the Knights!"

"You're no Knight. You're hardly a King. The real Red King was killed, his skeleton lies in the Realm of the Knights, with the rest of his people. You're just a coward prince who crowned himself and ruled the rest of the cowards that fled with you."

"I guess we have something in common then." He laughed and the man holding him tightened his grip, The Red King looked to the ring in Jack's hand, "You can have it." his voice sounded strangled, "Half the stone's missing and it won't work without it."

"Where's the other half?" Jack demanded but the Red King just laughed wickedly, "Tie him up and we'll take him back to our camp. If any Knight tries to stop you, you know what to do." He ordered and his men nodded in reply.

II.

"Please, you've got to help him." Alice cried, she dragged Hatter out of the water. Now that she was face to face with Lavinia she could feel her power slipping away from her and was faced with the full weight of Hatter, feeling weaker and more drained than ever.

"He's nearly gone, Alice." Lavinia said solemnly, "He's growing fainter by the minute. There's not much that I can do, I'm afraid."

"Don't say that. I can't give up, he wouldn't give up on me." She cradled his head in her lap, he tried to talk but Alice shushed him, "I found you Hatter. I'm so sorry that I got you into this mess, but I'm gunna find a way to fix it. I promise." Hatter reached up a hand and Alice took hold of it, squeezing it tightly, "Feel that?" she squeezed his hand again, "I never once gave up finding you, so I'm not about to give up now. I love you _David _Hatter." Hatter smiled weakly and tried to return the pressure but it was a lot weaker. Alice turned to her grandmother, "There has to be something that you can do, otherwise what's the point of you!" she barked.

"Alice!" Charlie gasped, "She's doing all the best that she can. It left her very weak when she transferred her powers to you, Lavinia came very close to the brink of death so you can show her a little respect, if you please."

"I'm sorry," Alice sighed, "Lavinia, you too Charlie. It's just. I can't let him die. I can't just sit here and watch him die. Is there anything that you can do?" she begged,

"My powers are too weak at the moment and I'm afraid by the time that I am myself again, it will be too late to save him." She looked truly sorry and clutched at Charlie's arm for support.

"Then I'll do something. Surely I have enough power to do something? I felt invincible back there."

"The power almost consumed you my dear, it cut me off. It's a difficult burden to wield so much power. But there may be something."

"Anything. I'll do anything at all." Alice grasped at the small shred of hope that was before her,

"It's a long shot. But the Stone of Wonderland is pure magic, it was formed over a thousand years ago from the tear of our ancestor over her lost love. The Knights mined it and used it to power the Looking Glass without the use of a Sorcerer. But it is so much more powerful than that. I think that if we could tap into our blood line, three different generations of the same blood line's power, all coming together. It could just work."

"The stone was broken in half." Alice frowned, "Half of it is in my world, and the Red King has the other half. There's no way..." she trailed off,

"I could try to keep him alive long enough whilst you go back into your own world and retrieve the other half of the stone. But it would be risky, the transfer of power has left us both weakened, there's the risk that you could become trapped on the other side of the Looking Glass."

"But it's the only chance that I have." Alice said firmly. She gently laid Hatter's head on the ground before rising and looking around at the landscape that surrounded her. They were in the middle of nowhere, hardly any tree cover and from what Alice could see, no possible places for mirrors to hide.

"Hmm, problem." Alice muttered, "There's no mirrors around here."

"You don't need one. You can use the river." Charlie said matter-of-factly, "That's what Lavinia uses." He looked with admiration at Lavinia and Alice looked from one to the other with suspicious eyes.

"I don't know how." Alice shuffled from one foot to the other. She didn't like this feeling of helplessness and the ever-increasing ticking clock of Hatter's life.

"I'll show you. Come here." Lavinia knelt beside the river and Alice mirrored her, in lagged unison, the pair reached their hands into the river and settled the water until it was as calm as a mill pond. Alice concentrated on her reflection until she couldn't see it anymore. Instead she saw Amber's Antiques and the whole corner devoted to mirrors. She imagined the wind chimes that no one wanted to buy (because they were made from broken cutlery, but Amber had liked them too much to throw away) moving and clattering in the wind outside of the shop. She imagined the large, wooden desk at the front of the shop that was always laden with too much paperwork and then she could see it. Reflected back at her where her own reflection had been not that long ago. Taking a deep breath, Alice submerged her head in the water and found herself falling out one of the mirrors in Amber's Antiques. Amber heard the noise from the back room and came in to investigate, pulling her glasses up from the beads around her neck and onto her nose. She stumbled backwards in surprise before running to Alice's aid.


	29. Chapter 29

**Firstly, I am so so very sorry that the time between my updates is all over the place. It was so much easier keeping up with this during the holidays, but with only a few days off from studying a week it's hard to command my inspiration and creativity to a schedule. And as this fic draws to an end I really just want to thank my continual reviewers who keep me inspired, Alaina Downs, Syranna19 and PhantasmicDragon, thank you also to anyone else who has reviewed, I really didn't think that anyone would read this .**

Chapter Twenty Nine

"Alice! What are you doing here? How did you get out of the institution?" Amber asked, helping Alice up to her feet,

"Has no one noticed that I'm missing yet?" Alice asked in confusion, she grabbed a nearby paper on Amber's desk to check the date and sure enough she'd been gone at least three days, Wonderland had synced it's time with her own world.

"No one has said anything. You're mother hasn't left your house so I doubt that anyone has told her. But where have you been my dear?" she looked to where she had found Alice and gasped, "You haven't been back in Wonderland? You couldn't have, I have half of the stone. You know I did everything that I could to keep you from there, it's a vile place, I had to keep you safe." She was muttering to herself.

"Amber, Amber, calm down. I had to go, Hatter needed me. He needs me now. He's dying Amber, and I need the stone of Wonderland to save him." Alice explained and Amber looked down to the ground,

"I'm sorry Alice."

"That's nice and everything, but Hatter's bleeding to death on a river bank back there and my powers are weak, if you could just give me the stone I'll be on my way." Alice held her palm out to Amber but Amber was staring back sadly, she made no motion to move at all.

"I'm sorry Alice, but I can't give you the stone. You can't go back to Wonderland. It's not safe for you there." Her grip around Alice's arm was tightening.

"Amber?" Alice questioned, she tried to pull her arm free but Amber was surprisingly strong, "Give me the stone."

"You're home and so is Hatter, he's where he belongs and now you are too. I'm sorry."

"No you're not." Alice spat, she pulled her arm free of Amber's grip. "Now either you give me the stone or I'll take it. But you do not get to tell me what I will and will not do."

"It's for your own safety, Alice. Why can't you see that? You're special and I can't just let you throw away your life like this. Hatter is nothing, he can be replaced, but you can't."

"You know don't you? About Lavinia." Alice narrowed her eyes at Amber, "You've known all along. You don't want to protect me, you want to protect my power."

"So what if I do!" Amber burst, "You're power and you are a package deal, you should be thankful that there is someone looking out for you!"

"There is someone looking out for me." Alice's brow furrowed, "I want to marry him and right now he's lying in Wonderland, bleeding to death and I know that he wouldn't stop until he found a way to save me so I'm sure as hell not going to leave here without your half of the stone."

"Over my dead body."Amber said, wrapping her cardigan closer around herself, "With one call I could have you back in that asylum, rotting away day after day. I think before long even you would believe that you had imagined Wonderland, I mean how could you not. In fact, I think you were mad all along. You're there now, strapped to a bed. You never chased the White Rabbit through the Looking Glass, you never went to Wonderland, you simply imagined it all, as an escape from the real world in which your father abandoned your mother and yourself."

"Shut up."

"I don't even exist. I'm nothing but a nurse, I stop by from time to time in your room, you're so dosed up on the good stuff that you take faces from the real world and make them into people inside of your delusion, Jack is your Doctor, Duchess- You're psychologist, and Hatter, why he's another patient, he's as stark raving mad as you are. I mean think about it... a mirror that takes you to another world? Harvesting emotions to use like drugs, that's impossible, you know that. You're as mad as a box of frogs." Amber laughed hysterically and Alice could feel her own self doubt starting to tear away at the inside of her mind. She wasn't mad. She couldn't be. But her mind found it easier to accept the rationality of Amber's words rather than the world where she passed through mirrors as if they were nothing more than a doorway. Alice shook her head to try and clear it,

"Stop your mind games and just give me the stone!" Alice cried, she was running out of time and beyond desperate by this point. Amber reached out to grab her arm again and Alice reacted before she could think about it. With one swift movement she had floored Amber. She felt slightly guilty at hurting the aging woman but Hatter needed her. She placed her foot on her chest to prevent her from getting up. "Now where is it?" Amber's eyes travelled to her desk and Alice followed them. "Do yourself a favour, and stay down." She added to Amber and started rummaging through Amber's desk. It was so unorganised that she had looked in the draw where it sat three times before she noticed the small ornate pill box. Inside, smaller than a penny sat the half of the stone that she needed.

"If you go through that mirror, you won't come back. Do the right thing and stay here." Amber called from the floor,

"I am doing the right thing." She muttered without turning around, heading straight for the corner of mirrors, "Hold on Hatter." She sent a silent prayer as she stepped through the mirror. But something was wrong, she was overcome half way through with an overwhelming sense of fatigue and felt like she was wading through mud. A journey that ordinarily would have taken her a few seconds was taking her what felt like hours and she was nearing the end of her endurance. She wanted more than anything to give up, to give in to the weight pulling her down and to stop fighting, to be at peace but an image of Hatter, lying half dead on the grass in her head made her fight on and before she knew it she was falling through a never-ending hole until she tumbled out on the grassy bank, covered in river water and mud.

"You were gone hours." Lavinia's worried face looked up to her, Jack and Duchess were knelt on the grass beside Hatter, trying to care and comfort him the best that they could. "The rest of the resistance have continued back to camp." She explained, "But Jack and Duchess stayed, they have the other half of the stone."

Alice emptied the small pill box into her hand and held up the small stone to the light. Such a tiny thing but it held so much power. Alice gazed deep into it, it had been formed from a single tear from a powerful sorceress, she could almost feel her pain emaciating from it, and it's anguish at being misused over the years. Well now it was about to prevent the very thing that had caused it. It was going to save Hatter's life. She knelt beside him and pushed his hair off of his face,

"Hey, how're you doing?" she asked softly, he was breathing heavily, Alice wasn't even sure if he knew she was even there, it was a cruel shot, a slow and painful death. In a way, her father's death had been better, hardly any pain. But she couldn't just sit here and wait for Hatter to die.

Lavinia came and sat the other side of Hatter, she held half of the stone in one of her hands and laid the other half on top of Hatter's head, Alice mirrored her and Lavinia moved her hand that was holding the stone so that it lay directly on top of Alice's half of the stone.

"I call upon our Ancestors. The powers of three different generations of our bloodline stand before you today so that we can ask you for your help." Lavinia's eyes were closed but she opened them to urge Alice to continue,

"Erm, I'm not really sure what to say, but please. You've got to help us. This is Hatter, and I love him, more than I have _ever_ loved anyone else, please, help me save him."

Whispers started to fill the air around them, voices long dead, came to life in the wind, thousands of them, all talking at once so it was almost impossible to distinguish what each one was saying but Alice was almost certain that these were the voices of her ancestors.

"Evangeline. I know you can understand Alice's pain, Hatter is a son of this world, he has done well to protect our sister sorceress. Help save him." The voices increased in volume all of a sudden and Lavinia's brow furrowed, "Is there no other way?" she asked,

"What are they saying?" Alice asked, she looked around herself, uneasy. It was as if she could almost see their faces, all staring at her, breaking through the wind that was surrounding them.

"They are upset at how the power so easily corrupted you with the Red King, they have an offer for you instead." Lavinia explained,

"I'll do anything, give them anything, just save him."

"Be careful with your words, my dear." Lavinia warned softly, "They are offering you two different worlds. The first a world here, with Hatter, you would have to leave behind everyone and everything in your own world, but Hatter would be alive. The second, you stay on the other side of the Looking Glass without Hatter, however your mother and father are happy and together, and soon your adventures in Wonderland will be nothing more than a distant dream, you won't even remember Hatter. But you will live a normal life, just like you would have before Wonderland took your father from you."

Alice staggered backwards slightly, overwhelmed by the choice before her "They're making me choose between Hatter and my dad?" she asked incredulously, "That's cruel, why would they do that to me?"

"They are upset with you, with both of us. They think we have misused our powers and they are upset with me not passing on my teachings to you a lot sooner. I'm sorry, Alice." Lavinia looked at her with sad eyes, "But you have to choose quick, my dear. He hasn't got long left."

**I know a lot of you won't be happy with yet another cliffhanger, but I wanted a nice even amount of chapters, so the next one is the very last chapter. **


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

Alice ran her hands over her face as she tried to clear her mind. It was an impossible decision, how could she be expected to pick between her family and her one true love. Either way she would lose a loved one. Her entire life she had dreamed of a whole family again, spent countless days searching for her father and countless nights dreaming of the moment when she finally did. Then when she eventually found him, he died in her arms. Part of her longed deeply just to see his face again, and what about her mother? Surely she would give anything to have her husband back again, they could be a proper family again. It was her childhood dream come true.

Beside her, Hatter groaned, he was falling in and out of consciousness and Alice was reminded of all that she would be giving up if she chose her family. Sure, Hatter would be alive in his own world, as if she never existed, and she would forget about him, and surely you can't miss what you can't remember. But in a way, the thought of forgetting Hatter seemed far worse than watching him die here, because if he died, she would at least have all of her memories to keep her company. A life without all that she had learnt from Hatter didn't seem like much of a life at all, despite having her family back. Guilt tore through her as her indecision came up with many pros and cons for each decision. If she chose her family, she would be making not only herself happy, but also her mother too, but being with Hatter made Alice feel happier than she could ever remember.

"_You know what to do Alice."_ A familiar voice broke through the many whispers of her ancestors,

"Daddy?" Alice choked, tears pricking her eyes, "Dad, I miss you."

"_I know, I miss you too, Jellybean. But I'm your past, Hatter's your future. You need to let me go."_

"I love you." Alice stated, not sure herself if she was talking to the disembodied voice of her dead father or Hatter. She closed her eyes tightly as tears streamed her cheeks and she reached out for Hatter's hand. It was clammy and sweaty and Alice was almost certain that he couldn't feel it anymore but just having him close to her brought her some kind of comfort.

"I've made my decision." Alice said calmly and confidently. The air around them started to buzz electrically as all of the voices started to whisper at once.

"What is it my dear?" Lavinia asked,

"First I want to make clear on some points." Alice said, "In both scenarios, Hatter lives right? If I go through the Looking Glass to my own world and forget all about him, he still lives?"

"Yes." Lavinia acted as translator,

"And he won't remember me?"

"It'll be as if you never stepped through the Looking Glass in the first place. Wonderland will still be ruled by the Queen of Hearts and Hatter will still be running his tea shop. But he'll be alive."

"And if I stay here, with Hatter. What'll happen to my mom?" Alice asked,

"She'll still remember who you are, she'll never stop looking for you but she'll be safe."

"So either way more lives than my own will be affected, right?" Alice verified to which Lavinia nodded, "It's an obvious choice." Alice looked to the ground. Her eyes fell upon Hatter as he shook and spluttered up blood. She kissed his hand gently. "I choose Hatter."

"As you wish it." Lavinia said with a gentle smile, she had already known that Alice would pick Hatter, yet a small part of her had also hoped that she would have chosen her son, if only so she could see his face one more time.

The wind surrounding them started to pick up in speed and dead leaves and flowers were being picked up in the mini tornado that they were stuck in. Almost immediately Alice was cut off from everyone else and she felt herself being picked up by the wind with its many different voices all calling to her at once.

"Hatter?" she called out blindly, she couldn't even hear her own words over the noise let alone if there was a reply but she tried again nevertheless, "Hatter?"

All of a sudden the wind dropped her roughly to the ground and the sky seemed clearer somehow. She scanned the faces that surrounded her, Jack, Duchess, Charlie, Lavinia and then finally-Hatter. He was standing (the first good sign) a few feet away from her and his eyes lit up as he caught her gaze, a smile spreading across his face and causing a set of slightly uneven teeth to shine through.

"Alice." The first word that left his lips, but it was more of a sigh of relief, relief that they were both safe and together even if he didn't quite understand how. He felt the weight of the world lift off of his heart with that one word.

Alice took cautious steps at first, stumbling forwards but before long she found her feet and ran as fast as they would carry her into Hatter's arms. She drank in his scent greedily, took note of every movement of his body, every pressure and weight of him holding her in his arms, not ready to ever forget a single detail about him.

"That feels good." He smiled, "You don't know how much I missed you." He breathed a sigh of relief, comfortable with Alice's presence, but Alice couldn't stop her bottom lip from starting to tremble. In a wave of longing and passion she weaved her fingers into Hatter's hair and kissed him, urging his body closer to hers until there was hardly any distinction between where he started and she finished. Alice's tears washed onto Hatter's face and he cupped her face in his hands, wiping them away with his other hand, "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." She smiled weakly as she thought of her mother, constantly searching for her, just like she had done for her father, it would drive her mad.

"Come on, we can go home now and relax." Hatter smiled and took hold of her hand,

"That's the thing." Alice started, "We can't go home, not to my world anyway."

"Huh?" Hatter was confused,

"You see, you were dying, and there was a price to pay, we can't go back through the Looking Glass. We're stuck here." Alice decided to leave out the part about her family,

"But what about the house- your mum?"

"They'll all be on the other side of the mirror." Alice explained, "Safe and sound."

"Well at least we're together." Hatter reasoned, squeezing Alice's hand to which she replied with a genuine smile. "So what have you been up to whilst I was gone?"

"Oh you know..." Alice smiled, "Worked for Amber, bought a few mirrors, got myself committed, same old same old." Hatter was slightly taken back by her answer but smiled nonetheless.

"Did you just say you got yourself committed?" he replied,

"Long story, and partially your fault too." She laughed, "But I'll tell it to you later. In the mean time, there are some people that I think will be relieved that you're alive now." She smiled and stood aside for Charlie to clap Hatter on the back and hug him two minutes longer than awkward. Lavinia came to Alice's side.

"That was a brave choice you made, I know how much having your father meant to you."

"I've already come to terms with Dad's death, I couldn't let go of Hatter too. There was also the people of Wonderland, I couldn't leave them under the rule of the Queen of Hearts again. Although the main reason was purely selfish." She smiled at Hatter but felt rotten inside, "I can't tell him either, if he knew what I sacrificed to be with him it would make him feel bad. But he means more to me than anything."

Later that night Alice and Hatter lay on the flat roof of one of the tree houses, they had no real reason to hide any more but had grown fond of their tree settlement and had decided to make more permanent settlements around them. The stars spread out above the pair of them, almost too clear and bright after they had become accustomed to the cloudy skies of Alice's world.

"You don't see skies like that back home."Hatter stated, but Alice knew he was just trying to convince themselves that they could live there happily, "You know, it's not that bad a place to live, I lived here my whole life."

"And you only nearly died how many times?"

"Well the number increased the moment that I met you." He smiled cheekily, "But it's no place to raise a child or start a family I don't think."

"Whoa." Alice sat up and looked at Hatter, "What?"

"I mean, you know, err, if we were-one day, to start a family. Is Wonderland really the right place to do it? It can be quite dangerous at times."

"No more dangerous than my world, I guess." Alice shrugged her shoulders,

"Yeah, but there's no chance of them wandering off and getting eaten whole by a Jabberwock in your world, now is there?"

"No, but they could get stabbed, shot, kidnapped, run over...as well as loads of other things." Alice replied and the pair of them stared off into the distance wide-eyed, panic-stricken over the safety of their hypothetical children.

"Yeah, but you and I survived okay, so it can't be that hard to keep a kid alive, right?"

"Exactly, and it's not all about panicking, I mean there's Christmases and birthdays, and first words, first hat." Alice added with a smile and Hatter grinned. Before long though the nature of their conversation dawned on them and both of their smiles faded, "But that's a long way away, you know, further in our future."

"Yeah, let's get our wedding out of the way first." Hatter smiled and Alice played with her engagement ring.

"What are weddings like in Wonderland?" she asked,

"Pretty much the same as in your world I think." He said, looping his arm around Alice's shoulders, she snuggled into his chest,

"Yeah, but are there bridal shops here? And wedding rings and a registrar?" Alice wondered out loud,

"In the main cities I think there was, but nearly everything was shut down when the Queen came into power, 'why fall in love and get married when you can experience it all from a tiny drop', you know? Some of it might still exist out there somewhere though, we could ask Jack. I'm sure he has connections."

"Yeah, it might be nice, you know, to get married where we first met. Kinda poetic, right?" Alice leaned on her elbow and looked at Hatter, he smiled back,

"Yeah, I guess it would be."

"Alice! Hatter! Quick!" Came Jack's hurried cry, the pair sprang up in almost perfect unison and scrabbled down onto the floor of the tree house.

"Jack? What is it?" Alice asked just as Lavinia appeared looking out of breath,

"It's Evangeline." Lavinia stated, "Your ancestor whose tear formed the Stone of Wonderland. She's holding a portal to your world open, but not for long."

"What, why? I thought that they were angry with us."

"She admires you, Alice, and she understands you. She wants you to be happy where she could not. But the others don't agree with her, she's holding it open by herself and she can't hold on for much ++

Alice looked to Hatter and found him already staring in her direction, "What'cha think?" she asked him, "Do you want to go back?"

"If you do you most likely will not be able to return." Lavinia interjected,

"I go wherever you go." Hatter smiled and Alice grinned. She took hold of his hand,

"Let's go." She smiled and hugged everyone goodbye. Once they were on the forest floor, Alice could see about half a mile in front of them a shimmering light beaconing them from between two great old trees whose braches had twisted together as they shot into the sky. It was starting to fade slightly as Hatter and Alice ran towards it, linked together by their joined hands. They could see it growing fainter and weaker as they approached until it was hardly there at all as they jumped through it, unsure if they would even reach their destination.

_**Two months later...**_

Alice stood in front of the full-length mirror tugging at her pale dress and adjusting her hair for the millionth time. Her mother's head appeared around her bedroom door and she gasped dramatically.

"You look beautiful." She sighed,

"Thank you. It's not too much?" she asked self-consciously,

"Are you kidding? You look perfect honey; in fact, I think you're going to make me cry." She sniffed and pulled a handkerchief from her purse and dabbed it under her eyes,

"Is it time?" Alice asked,

"Yes, it is." She smiled, "You nervous?"

"Yes and no. I'm excited."

"Well he's been working out there all of last night and all this morning. I sneaked a peak at it earlier, and it's breathtaking Alice." She smiled, taking Alice's arm and leading her down the staircase,

"It was his idea; I just let him do what he wanted. Has everyone been waiting long?"

"It's a bride's prerogative to be late." She smiled as they reached the back door and the whole garden opened up before her.

Fairy lights, there must have been at least a dozen different strings of the pure white little bulbs strung above her head and around the base of the trees that bordered their property. Chairs sat in rows with purple ribbons tied around the back of each one and an aisle made of flower petals sat dead centre leading to the newly completed tree house, lit up like a Christmas tree. The music started and all of her guests stood, turning with smiling faces to look at the Bride as she made her way to her Groom.

With her mother at her side, she gathered her skirts. She had never pictured herself as a wedding dress kind of girl, but she had to admit that she loved her dress. It was simple, elegant with a strapless, fitted top and a cream, satin sash around her waist. The most subtle layer of lace covered the top half and underskirts of the dress and her dark hair was swept over her left shoulder.

All of a sudden she had reached the end of the aisle and her husband to be stepped out into her line of sight. His deep purple waistcoat and tie peeping out from beneath his dark suit. A brilliant smile lighting up his face as he saw her. He kissed Alice on her cheek as her mother took her side on the appropriate side of the garden.

"You did all this?" Alice whispered to Hatter,

"Well it's no Wonderland, but I hoped that it would be just as poetic." He replied,

"It's perfect", she smiled.

The rest of the ceremony seemed to pass in a perfect blur for Alice and it wasn't until the reception that it actually sunk in that she was _Mrs _Alice Hatter. Once everyone had settled into their meal, her newlywed husband pulled her away from the party and towards the tree house.

"I still can't believe how well you finished this." Alice commented as she looked up at it, it was so much better than the platform it had been before their brief stint through the Looking Glass.

"I was inspired by Wonderland, they can do walls." He shrugged with a smile and helped her up the narrow wooden ladder.

"Where are we going?" Alice asked,

"You'll see." He replied with a smile. Once they reached the top Alice saw that the inside was also decorated with fairy lights, and propped up against the wooden wall was a large mirror, one of the only ones left from the spare room that they hadn't sold.

"What's going on?" Alice turned to Hatter in confusion but he simply led her forwards with a smile. As they stood facing it, Alice didn't see her own reflection but instead the figures of her friends from Wonderland facing her. Jack and Duchess stood in the foreground with Lavinia and Charlie behind them.

"You look beautiful, my dear." Lavinia cheered,

"You really do." Duchess admitted,

"Well I was missing my Chief Bridesmaid. Not that I'm not grateful, but how are you guys here?" she asked, reaching out a hand, the glass was completely solid.

"A loophole in the magic." Charlie said, "We can see you but the Looking Glass can never be opened again."

"And I would like to raise a toast to that loophole." Hatter handed Alice a filled champagne flute and Jack passed out the same on his side of the mirror.

"To Mr and Mrs...what are we calling you?" Jack asked,

"We decided to go with Hatter." Alice said with a smile,

"To Mr and Mrs Hatter then!" Jack cheered and the rest echoed him, each raising their glass and clinking them together.

From the ground below Carol could have sworn that she had heard a chorus of voices and laughs coming from the tree house, but she shook it off. She knew for a fact that only Hatter and Alice had entered the small wooden hut so she put the extra sounds down to guests elsewhere and continued with her meal. Over the years she had suspected slight truth to Alice's stories of Wonderland but for Carol, ignorance was bliss and she remained ignorant to it.

_**The End.**_

**Authors Notes:**

**Firstly, I am so so so so very thankful to everyone who has ever read or reviewed this, each and every one of you mean so much to me. This is my very first fan fic and I honestly didn't think that anyone would be interested in it, so to see my regular reviewers each update or a new one popping in, it literally makes my day ^.^ So this is the end, and to paraphrase the fictional words of Chuck Shurley, endings are hard but nothing really ends, does it? **


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